Data transmission method in wireless communication system, and apparatus therefor

ABSTRACT

A Station (STA) in a wireless communication system, the STA including a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a wireless signal; and a processor configured to control the transceiver. Further, the processor is further configured to: receive, from An access point (AP), a downlink (DL) multi-user (MU) Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), wherein the DL MU PPDU includes a DL data and trigger frame for an uplink (UL) orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) transmission; and transmit, to the AP, an UL MU PPDU generated based on the DL MU PPDU, wherein the trigger frame is transmitted in a first frequency region of the DL MU PPDU, and the DL data is transmitted in a second frequency region of the DL MU PPDU, when the trigger frame is for multiple stations (STAs), and wherein the first frequency region and the second frequency region are different frequency region.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/506,632 filed on Feb. 24, 2017, which is the National Phase of PCT International Application No. PCT/KR2015/008993 filed on Aug. 27, 2015, which claims the priority benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Nos. 62/100,065 filed on Jan. 6, 2015 and 62/042,759 filed on Aug. 27, 2014, all of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference into the present application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to a method for transmitting data for supporting a data transmission of multi-user and a device for supporting the same.

Discussion of the Related Art

Wi-Fi is a wireless local area network (WLAN) technology which enables a device to access the Internet in a frequency band of 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz or 60 GHz.

A WLAN is based on the institute of electrical and electronic engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. The wireless next generation standing committee (WNG SC) of IEEE 802.11 is an ad-hoc committee which is worried about the next-generation wireless local area network (WLAN) in the medium to longer term.

IEEE 802.11n has an object of increasing the speed and reliability of a network and extending the coverage of a wireless network. More specifically, IEEE 802.11n supports a high throughput (HT) providing a maximum data rate of 600 Mbps. Furthermore, in order to minimize a transfer error and to optimize a data rate, IEEE 802.11n is based on a multiple inputs and multiple outputs (MIMO) technology in which multiple antennas are used at both ends of a transmission unit and a reception unit.

As the spread of a WLAN is activated and applications using the WLAN are diversified, in the next-generation WLAN system supporting a very high throughput (VHT), IEEE 802.11ac has been newly enacted as the next version of an IEEE 802.11n WLAN system. IEEE 802.11ac supports a data rate of 1 Gbps or more through 80 MHz bandwidth transmission and/or higher bandwidth transmission (e.g., 160 MHz), and chiefly operates in a 5 GHz band.

Recently, a need for a new WLAN system for supporting a higher throughput than a data rate supported by IEEE 802.11ac comes to the fore.

The scope of IEEE 802.11ax chiefly discussed in the next-generation WLAN task group called a so-called IEEE 802.11ax or high efficiency (HEW) WLAN includes 1) the improvement of an 802.11 physical (PHY) layer and medium access control (MAC) layer in bands of 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, etc., 2) the improvement of spectrum efficiency and area throughput, 3) the improvement of performance in actual indoor and outdoor environments, such as an environment in which an interference source is present, a dense heterogeneous network environment, and an environment in which a high user load is present and so on.

A scenario chiefly taken into consideration in IEEE 802.11ax is a dense environment in which many access points (APs) and many stations (STAs) are present. In IEEE 802.11ax, the improvement of spectrum efficiency and area throughput is discussed in such a situation. More specifically, there is an interest in the improvement of substantial performance in outdoor environments not greatly taken into consideration in existing WLANs in addition to indoor environments.

In IEEE 802.11ax, there is a great interest in scenarios, such as wireless offices, smart homes, stadiums, hotspots, and buildings/apartments. The improvement of system performance in a dense environment in which many APs and many STAs are present is discussed based on the corresponding scenarios.

In the future, it is expected in IEEE 802.11ax that the improvement of system performance in an overlapping basic service set (OBSS) environment, the improvement of an outdoor environment, cellular offloading, and so on rather than single link performance improvement in a single basic service set (BSS) will be actively discussed. The directivity of such IEEE 802.11ax means that the next-generation WLAN will have a technical scope gradually similar to that of mobile communication. Recently, when considering a situation in which mobile communication and a WLAN technology are discussed together in small cells and direct-to-direct (D2D) communication coverage, it is expected that the technological and business convergence of the next-generation WLAN based on IEEE 802.11ax and mobile communication will be further activated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to propose an uplink/downlink multi-user data transmission and reception method in a wireless communication system.

In addition, an object of the present invention is to propose a High Efficiency (HE) format of a PPDU used for an uplink/downlink multi-user transmission and reception in a wireless communication system.

In addition, an object of the present invention is to propose an HE format of a DL/UL MU PPDU of a cascade scheme for efficiently utilizing DL/UL MU resource.

The technical objects of the present invention are not limited to those objects described above; other technical objects not mentioned above may be clearly understood from what are described below by those skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs.

In order to solve the technical problem, according to an embodiment of the present invention, an AP device of a WLAN system and a method for transmitting data performed by the AP device are proposed.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a method for performing a downlink (DL) multi-user (MU) transmission by an access point (AP) in a wireless communication system may include transmitting a DL MU Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), where the DL MU PPDU includes a trigger frame including trigger information for an uplink (UL) MU transmission and a DL MU frame; and receiving a UL MU PPDU generated based on the DL MU PPDU through UL MU, where the UL MU PPDU includes a UL MU frame based on the trigger frame and an acknowledge (ACK) frame in response to the DL MU frame.

In addition, when the trigger frame is transmitted together to a receiving station (STA) that receives the DL MU frame, the DL MU frame and the trigger frame may be included as an Aggregated MAC Protocol Data Unit (A-MPDU) format in a data field allocated to the receiving STA.

In addition, a MAC header of the trigger frame may include a trigger indicator indicating that the trigger frame includes the trigger information.

In addition, the trigger frame may correspond to a first MPDU among MAC Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) included in the A-MPDU format.

In addition, when the trigger frame is not transmitted together to a receiving station (STA) that receives the DL MU frame, the trigger frame may be included in a preconfigured data field of the DL MU PPDU as an MPDU format, and the DL MU frame may be included in other data field in the DL MU PPDU as the MPDU format or an A-MPDU format.

In addition, a physical frame in the DL MU PPDU may include a trigger indicator indicating whether the DL MU PPDU includes the trigger frame, or Broadcast Association Identifier (AID) information that receives the preconfigured data field.

In addition, the trigger indicator or the broadcast AID information may be included in a High Efficiency-Signal (HE-SIG) field of the physical preamble.

In addition, when the trigger frame is transmitted together to a receiving station (STA) that receives the DL MU frame, the ACK frame may be included in a preconfigured data field of the UL MU PPDU as an MPDU format, and the UL MU frame is included in other data field as the MPDU format or an A-MPDU format.

In addition, when the trigger frame is transmitted together to a receiving station (STA) that receives the DL MU frame, the ACK frame may be included in a preconfigured data field in the UL MU PPDU by being piggybacked in the UL MU frame.

In addition, the trigger frame may include at least one of Association Identifier (AID) information of an STA that performs the UL MU transmission, space resource indication information for the UL MU transmission and frequency resource indication information for the UL MU transmission.

In addition, according to another aspect of the present invention, an access point (AP) device in a wireless communication system may include an RF unit for transmitting and receiving a wireless signal; and a processor for controlling the RF unit, wherein the processor is configured to perform: transmitting a DL MU Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), where the DL MU PPDU includes a trigger frame including trigger information for an uplink (UL) MU transmission and a DL MU frame; and receiving a UL MU PPDU generated based on the DL MU PPDU through UL MU, where the UL MU PPDU includes a UL MU frame based on the trigger frame and an acknowledge (ACK) frame in response to the DL MU frame.

In addition, when the trigger frame is transmitted together to a receiving station (STA) that receives the DL MU frame, the DL MU frame and the trigger frame may be included as an Aggregated MAC Protocol Data Unit (A-MPDU) format in a data field allocated to the receiving STA.

In addition, when the trigger frame is not transmitted together to a receiving station (STA) that receives the DL MU frame, the trigger frame may be included in a preconfigured data field of the DL MU PPDU as an MPDU format, and the DL MU frame may be included in other data field in the DL MU PPDU as the MPDU format or an A-MPDU format.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a trigger frame and a DL MU frame are transmitted simultaneously through a single DL MU PPDU, and accordingly, there is an effect that the DL MU resource is saved and the communication performance is improved.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, an ACK frame and a UL MU frame are transmitted simultaneously through a single UL MU PPDU, and accordingly, there is an effect that the UL MU resource is saved and the communication performance is improved.

Other effects of the present invention are additionally discussed in the embodiments below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an IEEE 802.11 system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a layer architecture of an IEEE 802.11 system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 3 illustrates a non-HT format PPDU and an HT format PPDU in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 4 illustrates a VHT format PPDU in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 5 illustrates constellation diagrams for classifying a PPDU format in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 6 illustrates a MAC frame format in an IEEE 802.11 system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the frame control field in the MAC frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 8 illustrates the VHT format of an HT control field in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a random backoff period and a frame transmission procedure in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an IFS relation in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 11 is a diagram conceptually showing a method of channel sounding in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a VHT NDPA frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an NDP PPDU in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a VHT compressed beamforming frame format in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a Beamforming Report Poll frame format in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a Group ID Management frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a downlink multi-user PPDU format in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a downlink multi-user PPDU format in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a downlink MU-MIMO transmission process in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an ACK frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating a Block Ack Request frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating the BAR Information field of a Block Ack Request frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating a Block Ack frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating the BA Information field of a Block Ack frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating a high efficiency (HE) format PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 26 to 29 are diagrams illustrating HE format PPDUs according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 30 illustrates an example of phase rotation for the classification of HE format PPDUs;

FIG. 31 is a diagram illustrating an uplink multi-user transmission procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating an uplink multi-user transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 33 is a diagram illustrating resource allocation units in an OFDM multi-user transmission scheme according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 34 is a diagram illustrating a multi-user transmission procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 35 is a diagram exemplifying a PPDU structure that carries trigger information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 36 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 37 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU and a UL MU PPDU transmitted in response to the DL MU PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 38 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU and a UL MU PPDU according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 39 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU structure according to the embodiment 2-1 of the present invention;

FIG. 40 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU structure according to the embodiment 2-2 of the present invention;

FIG. 41 illustrates a table comparing the first and second embodiments;

FIG. 42 is a diagram illustrating a UL MU PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 43 is a flowchart illustrating a DL MU transmission method performed by an AP according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 44 is a block diagram of each STA device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. The detailed description, which will be given below with reference to the accompanying drawings, is intended to explain exemplary embodiments of the present invention, rather than to show the only embodiments that may be implemented according to the invention. The following detailed description includes specific details in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without such specific details.

In some instances, well-known structures and devices are omitted in order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the present invention and important functions of the structures and devices are shown in block diagram form.

It should be noted that specific terms disclosed in the present invention are proposed for convenience of description and better understanding of the present invention, and the use of these specific terms may be changed to other formats within the technical scope or spirit of the present invention.

The following technologies may be used in a variety of wireless communication systems, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). CDMA may be implemented using a radio technology, such as universal terrestrial radio access (UTRA) or CDMA2000. TDMA may be implemented using a radio technology, such as global system for Mobile communications (GSM)/general packet radio service (GPRS)/enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE). OFDMA may be implemented using a radio technology, such as institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, or evolved UTRA (E-UTRA). UTRA is part of a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS). 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) is part of an evolved UMTS (E-UMTS) using evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA), and it adopts OFDMA in downlink and adopts SC-FDMA in uplink. LTE-advanced (LTE-A) is the evolution of 3GPP LTE.

Embodiments of the present invention may be supported by the standard documents disclosed in at least one of IEEE 802, 3GPP, and 3GPP2, that is, radio access systems. That is, steps or portions that belong to the embodiments of the present invention and that are not described in order to clearly expose the technical spirit of the present invention may be supported by the documents. Furthermore, all terms disclosed in this document may be described by the standard documents.

In order to more clarify a description, 3GPP LTE/LTE-A is chiefly described, but the technical characteristics of the present invention are not limited thereto.

General System

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an IEEE 802.11 system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

The IEEE 802.11 configuration may include a plurality of elements. There may be provided a wireless communication system supporting transparent station (STA) mobility for a higher layer through an interaction between the elements. A basic service set (BSS) may correspond to a basic configuration block in an IEEE 802.11 system.

FIG. 1 illustrates that three BSSs BSS 1 to BSS 3 are present and two STAs (e.g., an STA 1 and an STA 2 are included in the BSS 1, an STA 3 and an STA 4 are included in the BSS 2, and an STA 5 and an STA 6 are included in the BSS 3) are included as the members of each BSS.

In FIG. 1, an ellipse indicative of a BSS may be interpreted as being indicative of a coverage area in which STAs included in the corresponding BSS maintain communication. Such an area may be called a basic service area (BSA). When an STA moves outside the BSA, it is unable to directly communicate with other STAs within the corresponding BSA.

In the IEEE 802.11 system, the most basic type of a BSS is an independent a BSS (IBSS). For example, an IBSS may have a minimum form including only two STAs. Furthermore, the BSS 3 of FIG. 1 which is the simplest form and from which other elements have been omitted may correspond to a representative example of the IBSS. Such a configuration may be possible if STAs can directly communicate with each other. Furthermore, a LAN of such a form is not previously planned and configured, but may be configured when it is necessary. This may also be called an ad-hoc network.

When an STA is powered off or on or an STA enters into or exits from a BSS area, the membership of the STA in the BSS may be dynamically changed. In order to become a member of a BSS, an STA may join the BSS using a synchronization process. In order to access all of services in a BSS-based configuration, an STA needs to be associated with the BSS. Such association may be dynamically configured, and may include the use of a distribution system service (DSS).

In an 802.11 system, the distance of a direct STA-to-STA may be constrained by physical layer (PHY) performance. In any case, the limit of such a distance may be sufficient, but communication between STAs in a longer distance may be required, if necessary. In order to support extended coverage, a distribution system (DS) may be configured.

The DS means a configuration in which BSSs are interconnected. More specifically, a BSS may be present as an element of an extended form of a network including a plurality of BSSs instead of an independent BSS as in FIG. 1.

The DS is a logical concept and may be specified by the characteristics of a distribution system medium (DSM). In the IEEE 802.11 standard, a wireless medium (WM) and a distribution system medium (DSM) are logically divided. Each logical medium is used for a different purpose and used by a different element. In the definition of the IEEE 802.11 standard, such media are not limited to the same one and are also not limited to different ones. The flexibility of the configuration (i.e., a DS configuration or another network configuration) of an IEEE 802.11 system may be described in that a plurality of media is logically different as described above. That is, an IEEE 802.11 system configuration may be implemented in various ways, and a corresponding system configuration may be independently specified by the physical characteristics of each implementation example.

The DS can support a mobile device by providing the seamless integration of a plurality of BSSs and providing logical services required to handle an address to a destination.

An AP means an entity which enables access to a DS through a WM with respect to associated STAs and has the STA functionality. The movement of data between a BSS and the DS can be performed through an AP. For example, each of the STA 2 and the STA 3 of FIG. 1 has the functionality of an STA and provides a function which enables associated STAs (e.g., the STA 1 and the STA 4) to access the DS. Furthermore, all of APs basically correspond to an STA, and thus all of the APs are entities capable of being addressed. An address used by an AP for communication on a WM and an address used by an AP for communication on a DSM may not need to be necessarily the same.

Data transmitted from one of STAs, associated with an AP, to the STA address of the AP may be always received by an uncontrolled port and processed by an IEEE 802.1X port access entity. Furthermore, when a controlled port is authenticated, transmission data (or frame) may be delivered to a DS.

A wireless network having an arbitrary size and complexity may include a DS and BSSs. In an IEEE 802.11 system, a network of such a method is called an extended service set (ESS) network. The ESS may correspond to a set of BSSs connected to a single DS. However, the ESS does not include a DS. The ESS network is characterized in that it looks like an IBSS network in a logical link control (LLC) layer. STAs included in the ESS may communicate with each other. Mobile STAs may move from one BSS to the other BSS (within the same ESS) in a manner transparent to the LLC layer.

In an IEEE 802.11 system, the relative physical positions of BSSs in FIG. 1 are not assumed, and the following forms are all possible.

More specifically, BSSs may partially overlap, which is a form commonly used to provide consecutive coverage. Furthermore, BSSs may not be physically connected, and logically there is no limit to the distance between BSSs. Furthermore, BSSs may be placed in the same position physically and may be used to provide redundancy. Furthermore, one (or one or more) IBSS or ESS networks may be physically present in the same space as one or more ESS networks. This may correspond to an ESS network form if an ad-hoc network operates at the position in which an ESS network is present, if IEEE 802.11 networks that physically overlap are configured by different organizations, or if two or more different access and security policies are required at the same position.

In a WLAN system, an STA is an apparatus operating in accordance with the medium access control (MAC)/PHY regulations of IEEE 802.11. An STA may include an AP STA and a non-AP STA unless the functionality of the STA is not individually different from that of an AP. In this case, assuming that communication is performed between an STA and an AP, the STA may be interpreted as being a non-AP STA. In the example of FIG. 1, the STA 1, the STA 4, the STA 5, and the STA 6 correspond to non-AP STAs, and the STA 2 and the STA 3 correspond to AP STAs.

A non-AP STA corresponds to an apparatus directly handled by a user, such as a laptop computer or a mobile phone. In the following description, a non-AP STA may also be called a wireless device, a terminal, user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), a network interface device, a machine-type communication (MTC) device, a machine-to-machine (M2M) device or the like.

Furthermore, an AP is a concept corresponding to a base station (BS), a node-B, an evolved Node-B (eNB), a base transceiver system (BTS), a femto BS or the like in other wireless communication fields.

Hereinafter, in this specification, downlink (DL) means communication from an AP to a non-AP STA. Uplink (UL) means communication from a non-AP STA to an AP. In DL, a transmitter may be part of an AP, and a receiver may be part of a non-AP STA. In UL, a transmitter may be part of a non-AP STA, and a receiver may be part of an AP.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a layer architecture of an IEEE 802.11 system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 2, the layer architecture of the IEEE 802.11 system may include an MAC sublayer and a PHY sublayer.

The PHY sublayer may be divided into a physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) entity and a physical medium dependent (PMD) entity. In this case, the PLCP entity functions to connect the MAC sublayer and a data frame, and the PMD entity functions to wirelessly transmit and receive data to and from two or more STAs.

The MAC sublayer and the PHY sublayer may include respective management entities, which may be referred to as an MAC sublayer management entity (MLME) and a PHY sublayer management entity (PLME), respectively. The management entities provide a layer management service interface through the operation of a layer management function. The MLME is connected to the PLME and may perform the management operation of the MAC sublayer. Likewise, the PLME is also connected to the MLME and may perform the management operation of the PHY sublayer.

In order to provide a precise MAC operation, a station management entity (SME) may be present in each STA. The SME is a management entity independent of each layer, and collects layer-based state information from the MLME and the PLME or sets the values of layer-specific parameters. The SME may perform such a function instead of common system management entities and may implement a standard management protocol.

The MLME, the PLME, and the SME may interact with each other using various methods based on primitives. More specifically, an XX-GET.request primitive is used to request the value of a management information base (MIB) attribute. An XX-GET.confirm primitive returns the value of a corresponding MIB attribute if the state is “SUCCESS”, and indicates an error in the state field and returns the value in other cases. An XX-SET.request primitive is used to make a request so that a designated MIB attribute is set as a given value. If an MIB attribute means a specific operation, such a request requests the execution of the specific operation. Furthermore, an XX-SET.confirm primitive means that a designated MIB attribute has been set as a requested value if the state is “SUCCESS.” In other cases, the XX-SET.confirm primitive indicates that the state field is an error situation. If an MIB attribute means a specific operation, the primitive may confirm that a corresponding operation has been performed.

An operation in each sublayer is described in brief as follows.

The MAC sublayer generates one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) by attaching an MAC header and a frame check sequence (FCS) to a MAC service data unit (MSDU) received from a higher layer (e.g., an LLC layer) or the fragment of the MSDU. The generated MPDU is delivered to the PHY sublayer.

If an aggregated MSDU (A-MSDU) scheme is used, a plurality of MSDUs may be aggregated into a single aggregated MSDU (A-MSDU). The MSDU aggregation operation may be performed in an MAC higher layer. The A-MSDU is delivered to the PHY sublayer as a single MPDU (if it is not fragmented).

The PHY sublayer generates a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) by attaching an additional field, including information for a PHY transceiver, to a physical service data unit (PSDU) received from the MAC sublayer. The PPDU is transmitted through a wireless medium.

The PSDU has been received by the PHY sublayer from the MAC sublayer, and the MPDU has been transmitted from the MAC sublayer to the PHY sublayer. Accordingly, the PSDU is substantially the same as the MPDU.

If an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU) scheme is used, a plurality of MPDUs (in this case, each MPDU may carry an A-MSDU) may be aggregated in a single A-MPDU. The MPDU aggregation operation may be performed in an MAC lower layer. The A-MPDU may include an aggregation of various types of MPDUs (e.g., QoS data, acknowledge (ACK), and a block ACK (BlockAck)). The PHY sublayer receives an A-MPDU, that is, a single PSDU, from the MAC sublayer. That is, the PSDU includes a plurality of MPDUs. Accordingly, the A-MPDU is transmitted through a wireless medium within a single PPDU.

Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) Format

A PPDU means a data block generated in the physical layer. A PPDU format is described below based on an IEEE 802.11 a WLAN system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 3 illustrates a non-HT format PPDU and an HT format PPDU in a wireless communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 3(a) illustrates a non-HT format PPDU for supporting IEEE 802.11a/g systems. The non-HT PPDU may also be called a legacy PPDU.

Referring to FIG. 3(a), the non-HT format PPDU is configured to include a legacy format preamble, including a legacy (or non-HT) short training field (L-STF), a legacy (or non-HT) long training field (L-LTF), and a legacy (or non-HT) signal (L-SIG) field, and a data field.

The L-STF may include a short training orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol (OFDM). The L-STF may be used for frame timing acquisition, automatic gain control (AGC), diversity detection, and coarse frequency/time synchronization.

The L-LTF may include a long training OFDM symbol. The L-LTF may be used for fine frequency/time synchronization and channel estimation.

The L-SIG field may be used to send control information for the demodulation and decoding of the data field.

The L-SIG field may include a rate field of four bits, a reserved field of 1 bit, a length field of 12 bits, a parity bit of 1 bit, and a signal tail field of 6 bits.

The rate field includes transfer rate information, and the length field indicates the number of octets of a PSDU.

FIG. 3(b) illustrates an HT mixed format PPDU for supporting both an IEEE 802.11n system and IEEE 802.11a/g system.

Referring to FIG. 3(b), the HT mixed format PPDU is configured to include a legacy format preamble including an L-STF, an L-LTF, and an L-SIG field, an HT format preamble including an HT-signal (HT-SIG) field, a HT short training field (HT-STF), and a HT long training field (HT-LTF), and a data field.

The L-STF, the L-LTF, and the L-SIG field mean legacy fields for backward compatibility and are the same as those of the non-HT format from the L-STF to the L-SIG field. An L-STA may interpret a data field through an L-LTF, an L-LTF, and an L-SIG field although it receives an HT mixed PPDU. In this case, the L-LTF may further include information for channel estimation to be performed by an HT-STA in order to receive the HT mixed PPDU and to demodulate the L-SIG field and the HT-SIG field.

An HT-STA may be aware of an HT mixed format PPDU using the HT-SIG field subsequent to the legacy fields, and may decode the data field based on the HT mixed format PPDU.

The HT-LTF may be used for channel estimation for the demodulation of the data field. IEEE 802.11n supports single user multi-input and multi-output (SU-MIMO) and thus may include a plurality of HT-LTFs for channel estimation with respect to each of data fields transmitted in a plurality of spatial streams.

The HT-LTF may include a data HT-LTF used for channel estimation for a spatial stream and an extension HT-LTF additionally used for full channel sounding. Accordingly, a plurality of HT-LTFs may be the same as or greater than the number of transmitted spatial streams.

In the HT mixed format PPDU, the L-STF, the L-LTF, and the L-SIG fields are first transmitted so that an L-STA can receive the L-STF, the L-LTF, and the L-SIG fields and obtain data. Thereafter, the HT-SIG field is transmitted for the demodulation and decoding of data transmitted for an HT-STA.

An L-STF, an L-LTF, L-SIG, and HT-SIG fields are transmitted without performing beamforming up to an HT-SIG field so that an L-STA and an HT-STA can receive a corresponding PPDU and obtain data. In an HT-STF, an HT-LTF, and a data field that are subsequently transmitted, radio signals are transmitted through precoding. In this case, an HT-STF is transmitted so that an STA receiving a corresponding PPDU by performing precoding may take into considerate a portion whose power is varied by precoding, and a plurality of HT-LTFs and a data field are subsequently transmitted.

Table 1 below illustrates the HT-SIG field.

TABLE 1 Field Bit Description MCS 7 Indicate a modulation and coding scheme CBW 20/40 1 Set to “0” if a CBW is 20 MHz or 40 MHz or upper/lower Set to “1” if a CBW is 40 MHz HT length 16 Indicate the number of data octets within a PSDU Smoothing 1 Set to “1” if channel smoothing is recommended Set to “0” if channel estimation is recommended unsmoothingly for each carrier Not-sounding 1 Set to “0” if a PPDU is a sounding PPDU Set to “1” if a PPDU is not a sounding PPDU Reserved 1 Set to “1” Aggregation 1 Set to “1” if a PPDU includes an A-MPDU Set to “0” if not Space-time 2 Indicate a difference between the number of space-time streams block coding (NSTS) and the number of spatial streams (NSS) indicated by an (STBC) MCS Set to “00” if an STBC is not used FEC coding 1 Set to “1” if low-density parity check (LDPC) is used Set to “0” if binary convolutional code (BCC) is used Short GI 1 Set to “1” if a short guard interval (GI) is used after HT training Set to “0” if not Number of 2 Indicate the number of extension spatial streams (NESSs) extension Set to “0” if there is no NESS spatial streams Set to “1” if the number of NESSs is 1 Set to “2” if the number of NESSs is 2 Set to “3” if the number of NESSs is 3 CRC 8 Include CRS for detecting an error of a PPDU on the receiver side Tail bits 6 Used to terminate the trellis of a convolutional decoder Set to “0”

FIG. 3(c) illustrates an HT-green field format PPDU (HT-GF format PPDU) for supporting only an IEEE 802.11n system.

Referring to FIG. 3(c), the HT-GF format PPDU includes an HT-GF-STF, an HT-LTF1, an HT-SIG field, a plurality of HT-LTF2s, and a data field.

The HT-GF-STF is used for frame timing acquisition and AGC.

The HT-LTF1 is used for channel estimation.

The HT-SIG field is used for the demodulation and decoding of the data field.

The HT-LTF2 is used for channel estimation for the demodulation of the data field. Likewise, an HT-STA uses SU-MIMO. Accordingly, a plurality of the HT-LTF2s may be configured because channel estimation is necessary for each of data fields transmitted in a plurality of spatial streams.

The plurality of HT-LTF2s may include a plurality of data HT-LTFs and a plurality of extension HT-LTFs like the HT-LTF of the HT mixed PPDU.

In FIGS. 3(a) to 3(c), the data field is a payload and may include a service field, a scrambled PSDU (PSDU) field, tail bits, and padding bits. All of the bits of the data field are scrambled.

FIG. 3(d) illustrates a service field included in the data field. The service field has 16 bits. The 16 bits are assigned No. 0 to No. 15 and are sequentially transmitted from the No. 0 bit. The No. 0 bit to the No. 6 bit are set to 0 and are used to synchronize a descrambler within a reception stage.

An IEEE 802.11ac WLAN system supports the transmission of a DL multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) method in which a plurality of STAs accesses a channel at the same time in order to efficiently use a radio channel. In accordance with the MU-MIMO transmission method, an AP may simultaneously transmit a packet to one or more STAs that have been subjected to MIMO pairing.

Downlink multi-user transmission (DL MU transmission) means a technology in which an AP transmits a PPDU to a plurality of non-AP STAs through the same time resources using one or more antennas.

Hereinafter, an MU PPDU means a PPDU which delivers one or more PSDUs for one or more STAs using the MU-MIMO technology or the OFDMA technology. Furthermore, an SU PPDU means a PPDU having a format in which only one PSDU can be delivered or which does not have a PSDU.

For MU-MIMO transmission, the size of control information transmitted to an STA may be relatively larger than the size of 802.11n control information. Control information additionally required to support MU-MIMO may include information indicating the number of spatial streams received by each STA and information related to the modulation and coding of data transmitted to each STA may correspond to the control information, for example.

Accordingly, when MU-MIMO transmission is performed to provide a plurality of STAs with a data service at the same time, the size of transmitted control information may be increased according to the number of STAs which receive the control information.

In order to efficiently transmit the control information whose size is increased as described above, a plurality of pieces of control information required for MU-MIMO transmission may be divided into two types of control information: common control information that is required for all of STAs in common and dedicated control information individually required for a specific STA, and may be transmitted.

FIG. 4 illustrates a VHT format PPDU in a wireless communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 4(a) illustrates a VHT format PPDU for supporting an IEEE 802.11ac system.

Referring to FIG. 4(a), the VHT format PPDU is configured to include a legacy format preamble including an L-STF, an L-LTF, and an L-SIG field, a VHT format preamble including a VHT-signal-A (VHT-SIG-A) field, a VHT short training field (VHT-STF), a VHT long training field (VHT-LTF), and a VHT-signal-B (VHT-SIG-B) field, and a data field.

The L-STF, the L-LTF, and the L-SIG field mean legacy fields for backward compatibility and have the same formats as those of the non-HT format. In this case, the L-LTF may further include information for channel estimation which will be performed in order to demodulate the L-SIG field and the VHT-SIG-A field.

The L-STF, the L-LTF, the L-SIG field, and the VHT-SIG-A field may be repeated in a 20 MHz channel unit and transmitted. For example, when a PPDU is transmitted through four 20 MHz channels (i.e., an 80 MHz bandwidth), the L-STF, the L-LTF, the L-SIG field, and the VHT-SIG-A field may be repeated every 20 MHz channel and transmitted.

A VHT-STA may be aware of the VHT format PPDU using the VHT-SIG-A field subsequent to the legacy fields, and may decode the data field based on the VHT-SIG-A field.

In the VHT format PPDU, the L-STF, the L-LTF, and the L-SIG field are first transmitted so that even an L-STA can receive the VHT format PPDU and obtain data. Thereafter, the VHT-SIG-A field is transmitted for the demodulation and decoding of data transmitted for a VHT-STA.

The VHT-SIG-A field is a field for the transmission of control information that is common to a VHT STAs that are MIMO-paired with an AP, and includes control information for interpreting the received VHT format PPDU.

The VHT-SIG-A field may include a VHT-SIG-A1 field and a VHT-SIG-A2 field.

The VHT-SIG-A1 field may include information about a channel bandwidth (BW) used, information about whether space time block coding (STBC) is applied or not, a group identifier (ID) for indicating a group of grouped STAs in MU-MIMO, information about the number of streams used (the number of space-time streams (NSTS)/part association identifier (AID), and transmit power save forbidden information. In this case, the group ID means an identifier assigned to a target transmission STA group in order to support MU-MIMO transmission, and may indicate whether the present MIMO transmission method is MU-MIMO or SU-MIMO.

Table 2 illustrates the VHT-SIG-A1 field.

TABLE 2 field bit description BW 2 Set to “0” if a BW is 20 MHz Set to “1” if a BW is 40 MHz Set to “2” if a BW is 80 MHz Set to “3” if a BW is 160 MHz or 80 + 80 MHz Reserved 1 STBC 1 In the case of a VHT SU PPDU: Set to “1” if STBC is used Set to “0” if not In the case of a VHT MU PPDU: Set to “0” group ID 6 Indicate a group ID “0” or “63” indicates a VHT SU PPDU, but indicates a VHT MU PPDU if not NSTS/Partial 12 In the case of a VHT MU PPDU, divide into 4 user positions AID “p” each having three bits “0” if a space-time stream is 0 “1” if a space-time stream is 1 “2” if a space-time stream is 2 “3” if a space-time stream is 3 “4” if a space-time stream is 4 In the case of a VHT SU PPDU, Upper 3 bits are set as follows: “0” if a space-time stream is 1 “1” if a space-time stream is 2 “2” if a space-time stream is 3 “3” if a space-time stream is 4 “4” if a space-time stream is 5 “5” if a space-time stream is 6 “6” if a space-time stream is 7 “7” if a space-time stream is 8 Lower 9 bits indicate a partial AID. TXOP_PS_NOT_ALLOWED 1 Set to “0” if a VHT AP permits a non-AP VHT STA to switch to power save mode during transmission opportunity (TXOP) Set to “1” if not In the case of a VHT PPDU transmitted by a non-AP VHT STA Set to “1” Reserved 1

The VHT-SIG-A2 field may include information about whether a short guard interval (GI) is used or not, forward error correction (FEC) information, information about a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for a single user, information about the type of channel coding for multiple users, beamforming-related information, redundancy bits for cyclic redundancy checking (CRC), the tail bits of a convolutional decoder and so on.

Table 3 illustrates the VHT-SIG-A2 field.

TABLE 3 field bit description Short GI 1 Set to “0” if a short GI is not used in a data field Set to “1” if a short GI is used in a data field Short GI 1 Set to “1” if a short GI is used and an extra symbol is required disambiguation for the payload of a PPDU Set to “0” if an extra symbol is not required SU/MU coding 1 In the case of a VHT SU PPDU: Set to “0” in the case of binary convolutional code (BCC) Set to “1” in the case of low-density parity check (LDPC) In the case of a VHT MU PPDU: Indicate coding used if the NSTS field of a user whose user position is “0” is not “0” Set to “0” in the case of BCC Set to “1” in the case of PDPC Set to “1” as a reserved field if the NSTS field of a user whose user position is “0” is “0” LDPC Extra 1 Set to “1” if an extra OFDM symbol is required due to an PDPC OFDM symbol PPDU encoding procedure (in the case of a SU PPDU) or the PPDU encoding procedure of at least one PDPC user (in the case of a VHT MU PPDU) Set to “0” if not SU VHT 4 In the case of a VHT SU PPDU: MCS/MU coding Indicate a VHT-MCS index In the case of a VHT MU PPDU: Indicate coding for user positions “1” to “3” sequentially from upper bits Indicate coding used if the NSTS field of each user is not “1” Set to “0” in the case of BCC Set to “1” in the case of LDPC Set to “1” as a reserved field if the NSTS field of each user is “0” Beamformed 1 In the case of a VHT SU PPDU: Set to “1” if a beamforming steering matrix is applied to SU transmission Set to “0” if not In the case of a VHT MU PPDU: Set to “1” as a reserved field Reserved 1 CRC 8 Include CRS for detecting an error of a PPDU on the receiver side Tail 6 Used to terminate the trellis of a convolutional decoder Set to “0”

The VHT-STF is used to improve AGC estimation performance in MIMO transmission.

The VHT-LTF is used for a VHT-STA to estimate an MIMO channel. Since a VHT WLAN system supports MU-MIMO, the VHT-LTF may be configured by the number of spatial streams through which a PPDU is transmitted. Additionally, if full channel sounding is supported, the number of VHT-LTFs may be increased.

The VHT-SIG-B field includes dedicated control information which is necessary for a plurality of MU-MIMO-paired VHT-STAs to receive a PPDU and to obtain data. Accordingly, only when common control information included in the VHT-SIG-A field indicates that a received PPDU is for MU-MIMO transmission, a VHT-STA may be designed to decode the VHT-SIG-B field. In contrast, if common control information indicates that a received PPDU is for a single VHT-STA (including SU-MIMO), an STA may be designed to not decode the VHT-SIG-B field.

The VHT-SIG-B field includes a VHT-SIG-B length field, a VHT-MCS field, a reserved field, and a tail field.

The VHT-SIG-B length field indicates the length of an A-MPDU (prior to end-of-frame (EOF) padding). The VHT-MCS field includes information about the modulation, encoding, and rate-matching of each VHT-STA.

The size of the VHT-SIG-B field may be different depending on the type (MU-MIMO or SU-MIMO) of MIMO transmission and a channel bandwidth used for PPDU transmission.

FIG. 4(b) illustrates a VHT-SIG-B field according to a PPDU transmission bandwidth.

Referring to FIG. 4(b), in 40 MHz transmission, VHT-SIG-B bits are repeated twice. In 80 MHz transmission, VHT-SIG-B bits are repeated four times, and padding bits set to 0 are attached.

In 160 MHz transmission and 80+80 MHz transmission, first, VHT-SIG-B bits are repeated four times as in the 80 MHz transmission, and padding bits set to 0 are attached. Furthermore, a total of the 117 bits is repeated again.

In a system supporting MU-MIMO, in order to transmit PPDUs having the same size to STAs paired with an AP, information indicating the size of the bits of a data field forming the PPDU and/or information indicating the size of bit streams forming a specific field may be included in the VHT-SIG-A field.

In this case, an L-SIG field may be used to effectively use a PPDU format. A length field and a rate field which are included in the L-SIG field and transmitted so that PPDUs having the same size are transmitted to all of STAs may be used to provide required information. In this case, additional padding may be required in the physical layer because an MAC protocol data unit (MPDU) and/or an aggregate MAC PDU (A-MPDU) are set based on the bytes (or octets) of the MAC layer.

In FIG. 4, the data field is a payload and may include a service field, a scrambled PSDU, tail bits, and padding bits.

An STA needs to determine the format of a received PPDU because several formats of PPDUs are mixed and used as described above.

In this case, the meaning that a PPDU (or a PPDU format) is determined may be various. For example, the meaning that a PPDU is determined may include determining whether a received PPDU is a PPDU capable of being decoded (or interpreted) by an STA. Furthermore, the meaning that a PPDU is determined may include determining whether a received PPDU is a PPDU capable of being supported by an STA. Furthermore, the meaning that a PPDU is determined may include determining that information transmitted through a received PPDU is which information.

This will be described in more detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 5 illustrates constellation diagrams for classifying a PPDU format in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

(a) of FIG. 5 illustrates a constellation for the L-SIG field included in the non-HT format PPDU, (b) of FIG. 5 illustrates a phase rotation for HT-mixed format PPDU detection, and (c) of FIG. 5 illustrates a phase rotation for VHT format PPDU detection.

In order for an STA to classify a PPDU as a non-HT format PPDU, HT-GF format PPDU, HT-mixed format PPDU, or VHT format PPDU, the phases of constellations of the L-SIG field and of the OFDM symbols, which are transmitted following the L-SIG field, are used. That is, the STA may classify a PDDU format based on the phases of constellations of the L-SIG field of a received PPDU and/or of the OFDM symbols, which are transmitted following the L-SIG field.

Referring to (a) of FIG. 5, the OFDM symbols of the L-SIG field use BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying).

To begin with, in order to classify a PPDU as an HT-GF format PPDU, the STA, upon detecting a first SIG field from a received PPDU, determines whether this first SIG field is an L-SIG field or not. That is, the STA attempts to perform decoding based on the constellation illustrated in (a) of FIG. 5. If the STA fails in decoding, the corresponding PPDU may be classified as the HT-GF format PPDU.

Next, in order to distinguish the non-HT format PPDU, HT-mixed format PPDU, and VHT format PPDU, the phases of constellations of the OFDM symbols transmitted following the L-SIG field may be used. That is, the method of modulation of the OFDM symbols transmitted following the L-SIG field may vary, and the STA may classify a PPDU format based on the method of modulation of fields coming after the L-SIG field of the received PPDU.

Referring to (b) of FIG. 5, in order to classify a PPDU as an HT-mixed format PPDU, the phases of two OFDM symbols transmitted following the L-SIG field in the HT-mixed format PPDU may be used.

More specifically, both the phases of OFDM symbols #1 and #2 corresponding to the HT-SIG field, which is transmitted following the L-SIG field, in the HT-mixed format PPDU are rotated counterclockwise by 90 degrees. That is, the OFDM symbols #1 and #2 are modulated by QBPSK (Quadrature Binary Phase Shift Keying). The QBPSK constellation may be a constellation which is rotated counterclockwise by 90 degrees based on the BPSK constellation.

An STA attempts to decode the first and second OFDM symbols corresponding to the HT-SIG field transmitted after the L-SIG field of the received PDU, based on the constellations illustrated in (b) of FIG. 5. If the STA succeeds in decoding, the corresponding PPDU may be classified as an HT format PPDU.

Next, in order to distinguish the non-HT format PPDU and the VHT format PPDU, the phases of constellations of the OFDM symbols transmitted following the L-SIG field may be used.

Referring to (c) of FIG. 5, in order to classify a PPDU as a VHT format PPDU, the phases of two OFDM symbols transmitted after the L-SIG field may be used in the VHT format PPDU.

More specifically, the phase of the OFDM symbol #1 corresponding to the VHT-SIG-A coming after the L-SIG field in the HT format PPDU is not rotated, but the phase of the OFDM symbol #2 is rotated counterclockwise by 90 degrees. That is, the OFDM symbol #1 is modulated by BPSK, and the OFDM symbol #2 is modulated by QBPSK.

The STA attempts to decode the first and second OFDM symbols corresponding to the VHT-SIG field transmitted following the L-SIG field of the received PDU, based on the constellations illustrated in (c) of FIG. 5. If the STA succeeds in decoding, the corresponding PPDU may be classified as a VHT format PPDU.

On the contrary, If the STA fails in decoding, the corresponding PPDU may be classified as a non-HT format PPDU.

MAC Frame Format

FIG. 6 illustrates a MAC frame format in an IEEE 802.11 system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 6, the MAC frame (i.e., an MPDU) includes an MAC header, a frame body, and a frame check sequence (FCS).

The MAC Header is defined as an area, including a frame control field, a duration/ID field, an address 1 field, an address 2 field, an address 3 field, a sequence control field, an address 4 field, a QoS control field, and an HT control field.

The frame control field contains information on the characteristics of the MAC frame. A more detailed description of the frame control field will be given later.

The duration/ID field may be implemented to have a different value depending on the type and subtype of a corresponding MAC frame.

If the type and subtype of a corresponding MAC frame is a PS-poll frame for a power save (PS) operation, the duration/ID field may be configured to include the association identifier (AID) of an STA that has transmitted the frame. In the remaining cases, the duration/ID field may be configured to have a specific duration value depending on the type and subtype of a corresponding MAC frame. Furthermore, if a frame is an MPDU included in an aggregate-MPDU (A-MPDU) format, the duration/ID field included in an MAC header may be configured to have the same value.

The address 1 field to the address 4 field are used to indicate a BSSID, a source address (SA), a destination address (DA), a transmitting address (TA) indicating the address of a transmitting STA, and a receiving address (RA) indicating the address of a receiving STA.

An address field implemented as a TA field may be set as a bandwidth signaling TA value. In this case, the TA field may indicate that a corresponding MAC frame includes additional information in a scrambling sequence. The bandwidth signaling TA may be represented as the MAC address of an STA that sends a corresponding MAC frame, but individual/group bits included in the MAC address may be set as a specific value (e.g., “1”).

The sequence control field is configured to include a sequence number and a fragment number. The sequence number may indicate a sequence number assigned to a corresponding MAC frame. The fragment number may indicate the number of each fragment of a corresponding MAC frame.

The QoS control field includes information related to QoS. The QoS control field may be included if it indicates a QoS data frame in a subtype subfield.

The HT control field includes control information related to an HT and/or VHT transmission/reception scheme. The HT control field is included in a control wrapper frame. Furthermore, the HT control field is present in a QoS data frame having an order subfield value of 1 and a management frame.

The frame body is defined as an MAC payload. Data to be transmitted in a higher layer is placed in the frame body. The frame body has a varying size. For example, a maximum size of an MPDU may be 11454 octets, and a maximum size of a PPDU may be 5.484 ms.

The FCS is defined as an MAC footer and used for the error search of an MAC frame.

The first three fields (i.e., the frame control field, the duration/ID field, and Address 1 field) and the last field (i.e., the FCS field) form a minimum frame format and are present in all of frames. The remaining fields may be present only in a specific frame type.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the frame control field in the MAC frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 7, the frame control field includes a Protocol Version subfield, a Type subfield, a Subtype subfield, a to DS subfield, a From DS subfield, a More Fragments subfield, a Retry subfield, a Power Management subfield, a More Data subfield, a Protected Frame subfield, and an Order subfield.

The protocol version subfield may indicate the version of a WLAN protocol applied to the MAC frame.

The type subfield and the subtype subfield may be configured to indicate information for identifying the function of the MAC frame.

The MAC frame may include three frame types: Management frames, Control frames, and Data frames.

Each frame type may be subdivided into subtypes.

For example, the Control frames may include an RTS (request-to-send) frame, a CTS (clear-to-send) frame, an ACK (Acknowledgement) frame, a PS-Poll frame, a CF (contention free)-End frame, a CF-End+CF-ACK frame, a BAR (Block Acknowledgement request) frame, a BA (Block Acknowledgement) frame, a Control Wrapper (Control+HTcontrol) frame, a VHT NDPA (Null Data Packet Announcement) frame, and a Beamforming Report Poll frame.

The Management frames may include a Beacon frame, an ATIM (Announcement Traffic Indication Message) frame, a Disassociation frame, an Association Request/Response frame, a Reassociation Request/Response frame, a Probe Request/Response frame, an Authentication frame, a Deauthentication frame, an Action frame, an Action No ACK frame, and a Timing Advertisement frame.

The To Ds subfield and the From DS subfield may contain information required to interpret the Address 1 field through Address 4 field included in the MAC frame header. For a Control frame, the To DS subfield and the From DS subfield may all set to ‘0’. For a Management frame, the To DS subfield and the From DS subfield may be set to ‘1’ and ‘0’, respectively, if the corresponding frame is a QoS Management frame (QMF); otherwise, the To DS subfield and the From DS subfield all may be set to ‘0’.

The More Fragments subfield may indicate whether there is a fragment to be sent subsequent to the MAC frame. If there is another fragment of the current MSDU or MMPDU, the More Fragments subfield may be set to ‘1’; otherwise, it may be set to ‘0’.

The Retry subfield may indicate whether the MAC frame is the previous MAC frame that is re-transmitted. If the MAC frame is the previous MAC frame that is re-transmitted, the Retry subfield may be set to ‘1’; otherwise, it may be set to ‘0’.

The Power Management subfield may indicate the power management mode of the STA. If the Power Management subfield has a value of ‘1’, this may indicate that the STA switches to power save mode.

The More Data subfield may indicate whether there is a MAC frame to be additionally sent. If there is a MAC frame to be additionally sent, the More Data subfield may be set to ‘1’; otherwise, it may be set to ‘0’.

The Protected Frame subfield may indicate whether a Frame Body field is encrypted or not. If the Frame Body field contains information that is processed by a cryptographic encapsulation algorithm, it may be set to ‘1’; otherwise ‘0’.

Information contained in the above-described fields may be as defined in the IEEE 802.11 system. Also, the above-described fields are examples of the fields that may be included in the MAC frame but not limited to them. That is, the above-described fields may be substituted with other fields or further include additional fields, and not all of the fields may be necessarily included.

FIG. 8 illustrates the VHT format of an HT control field in a wireless communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 8, the HT control field may include a VHT subfield, an HT control middle subfield, an AC constraint subfield, and a reverse direction grant (RDG)/more PPDU subfield.

The VHT subfield indicates whether the HT control field has the format of an HT control field for VHT (VHT=1) or has the format of an HT control field for HT (VHT=0). In FIG. 8, it is assumed that the HT control field is an HT control field for VHT (i.e., VHT=1).

The HT control field for VHT may be called a VHT control field.

The HT control middle subfield may be implemented to a different format depending on the indication of a VHT subfield. The HT control middle subfield is described in detail later.

The AC constraint subfield indicates whether the mapped access category (AC) of a reverse direction (RD) data frame is constrained to a single AC.

The RDG/more PPDU subfield may be differently interpreted depending on whether a corresponding field is transmitted by an RD initiator or an RD responder.

Assuming that a corresponding field is transmitted by an RD initiator, the RDG/more PPDU subfield is set as “1” if an RDG is present, and the RDG/more PPDU subfield is set as “0” if an RDG is not present. Assuming that a corresponding field is transmitted by an RD responder, the RDG/more PPDU subfield is set as “1” if a PPDU including the corresponding subfield is the last frame transmitted by the RD responder, and the RDG/more PPDU subfield is set as “0” if another PPDU is transmitted.

As described above, the HT control middle subfield may be implemented to a different format depending on the indication of a VHT subfield.

The HT control middle subfield of an HT control field for VHT may include a reserved bit subfield, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) feedback request (MRQ) subfield, an MRQ sequence identifier (MSI)/space-time block coding (STBC) subfield, an MCS feedback sequence identifier (MFSI)/least significant bit (LSB) of group ID (GID-L) subfield, an MCS feedback (MFB) subfield, a most significant Bit (MSB) of group ID (GID-H) subfield, a coding type subfield, a feedback transmission type (FB Tx type) subfield, and an unsolicited MFB subfield.

Table 4 illustrates a description of each subfield included in the HT control middle subfield of the VHT format.

TABLE 4 subfield meaning definition MRQ MCS request Set to “1” if MCS feedback (solicited MFB) is not requested Set to “0” if not MSI MRQ sequence An MSI subfield includes a sequence number within a identifier range of 0 to 6 to identify a specific request if an unsolicited MFB subfield is set to “0” and an MRQ subfield is set to “1.” Include a compressed MSI subfield (2 bits) and an STBC indication subfield (1 bit) if an unsolicited MFB subfield is “1.” MFSI/GID-L MFB sequence An MFSI/GID-L subfield includes the received value of identifier/LSB an MSI included within a frame related to MFB of group ID information if an unsolicited MFB subfield is set to “0.” An MFSI/GID-L subfield includes the lowest three bits of a group ID of a PPDU estimated by an MFB if an MFB is estimated from an MU PPDU. MFB VHT N_STS, An MFB subfield includes recommended MFB. MCS, BW, SNR VHT-MCS = 15, NUM_STS = 7 indicates that feedback is feedback not present. GID-H MSB of group A GID-H subfield includes the most significant bit 3 bits ID of a group ID of a PPDU whose solicited MFB has been estimated if an unsolicited MFB field is set to “1” and MFB has been estimated from a VHT MU PPDU. All of GID-H subfields are set to “1” if MFB is estimated from an SU PPDU. Coding Type Coding type or If an unsolicited MFB subfield is set to “1”, a coding type MFB response subfield includes the coding type (binary convolutional code (BCC) includes 0 and low-density parity check (LDPC) includes 1) of a frame whose solicited MFB has been estimated FB Tx Type Transmission An FB Tx Type subfield is set to “0” if an unsolicited type of MFB MFB subfield is set to “1” and MFB has been estimated response from an unbeamformed VHT PPDU. An FB Tx Type subfield is set to “1” if an unsolicited MFB subfield is set to “1” and MFB has been estimated from a beamformed VHT PPDU. Unsolicited Unsolicited Set to “1” if MFB is a response to MRQ MFB MCS feedback Set to “0” if MFB is not a response to MRQ indicator

Furthermore, the MFB subfield may include the number of VHT space time streams (NUM_STS) subfield, a VHT-MCS subfield, a bandwidth (BW) subfield, and a signal to noise ratio (SNR) subfield.

The NUM_STS subfield indicates the number of recommended spatial streams. The VHT-MCS subfield indicates a recommended MCS. The BW subfield indicates bandwidth information related to a recommended MCS. The SNR subfield indicates an average SNR value of data subcarriers and spatial streams.

The information included in each of the aforementioned fields may comply with the definition of an IEEE 802.11 system. Furthermore, each of the aforementioned fields corresponds to an example of fields which may be included in an MAC frame and is not limited thereto. That is, each of the aforementioned fields may be substituted with another field, additional fields may be further included, and all of the fields may not be essentially included.

Medium Access Mechanism

In IEEE 802.11, communication is basically different from that of a wired channel environment because it is performed in a shared wireless medium.

In a wired channel environment, communication is possible based on carrier sense multiple access/collision detection (CSMA/CD). For example, when a signal is once transmitted by a transmission stage, it is transmitted up to a reception stage without experiencing great signal attenuation because there is no great change in a channel environment. In this case, when a collision between two or more signals is detected, detection is possible. The reason for this is that power detected by the reception stage becomes instantly higher than power transmitted by the transmission stage. In a radio channel environment, however, since various factors (e.g., signal attenuation is great depending on the distance or instant deep fading may be generated) affect a channel, a transmission stage is unable to accurately perform carrier sensing regarding whether a signal has been correctly transmitted by a reception stage or a collision has been generated.

Accordingly, in a WLAN system according to IEEE 802.11, a carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanism has been introduced as the basic access mechanism of MAC. The CAMA/CA mechanism is also called a distributed coordination function (DCF) of IEEE 802.11 MAC, and basically adopts a “listen before talk” access mechanism. In accordance with such a type of access mechanism, an AP and/or an STA perform clear channel assessment (CCA) for sensing a radio channel or a medium for a specific time interval (e.g., a DCF inter-frame space (DIFS)) prior to transmission. If, as a result of the sensing, the medium is determined to be an idle state, the AP and/or the STA starts to transmit a frame through the corresponding medium. In contrast, if, as a result of the sensing, the medium is determined to be a busy state (or an occupied status), the AP and/or the STA do not start their transmission, may wait for a delay time (e.g., a random backoff period) for medium access in addition to the DIFS assuming that several STAs already wait for in order to use the corresponding medium, and may then attempt frame transmission.

Assuming that several STAs trying to transmit frames are present by applying the random backoff period, they will wait for different times because the STAs stochastically have different backoff period values and will attempt frame transmission. In this case, a collision can be minimized by applying the random backoff period.

Furthermore, the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol provides a hybrid coordination function (HCF). The HCF is based on a DCF and a point coordination function (PCF). The PCF is a polling-based synchronous access method, and refers to a method for periodically performing polling so that all of receiving APs and/or STAs can receive a data frame. Furthermore, the HCF has enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) and HCF controlled channel access (HCCA). In EDCA, a provider performs an access method for providing a data frame to multiple users on a contention basis. In HCCA, a non-contention-based channel access method using a polling mechanism is used. Furthermore, the HCF includes a medium access mechanism for improving the quality of service (QoS) of a WLAN, and may transmit QoS data in both a contention period (CP) and a contention-free period (CFP).

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a random backoff period and a frame transmission procedure in a wireless communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

When a specific medium switches from an occupied (or busy) state to an idle state, several STAs may attempt to transmit data (or frames). In this case, as a scheme for minimizing a collision, each of the STAs may select a random backoff count, may wait for a slot time corresponding to the selected random backoff count, and may attempt transmission. The random backoff count has a pseudo-random integer value and may be determined as one of uniformly distributed values in 0 to a contention window (CW) range. In this case, the CW is a CW parameter value. In the CW parameter, CW_min is given as an initial value. If transmission fails (e.g., if ACK for a transmitted frame is not received), the CW_min may have a twice value. If the CW parameter becomes CW_max, it may maintain the CW_max value until data transmission is successful, and the data transmission may be attempted. If the data transmission is successful, the CW parameter is reset to a CW_min value. The CW, CW_min, and CW_max values may be set to 2{circumflex over ( )}n−1 (n=0, 1, 2, . . . ,).

When a random backoff process starts, an STA counts down a backoff slot based on a determined backoff count value and continues to monitor a medium during the countdown. When the medium is monitored as a busy state, the STA stops the countdown and waits. When the medium becomes an idle state, the STA resumes the countdown.

In the example of FIG. 9, when a packet to be transmitted in the MAC of an STA 3 is reached, the STA 3 may check that a medium is an idle state by a DIFS and may immediately transmit a frame.

The remaining STAs monitor that the medium is the busy state and wait. In the meantime, data to be transmitted by each of an STA 1, an STA 2, and an STA 5 may be generated. When the medium is monitored as an idle state, each of the STAs waits for a DIFS and counts down a backoff slot based on each selected random backoff count value.

The example of FIG. 9 shows that the STA 2 has selected the smallest backoff count value and the STA 1 has selected the greatest backoff count value. That is, FIG. 7 illustrates that the remaining backoff time of the STA 5 is shorter than the remaining backoff time of the STA 1 at a point of time at which the STA 2 finishes a backoff count and starts frame transmission.

The STA 1 and the STA 5 stop countdown and wait while the STA 2 occupies the medium. When the occupation of the medium by the STA 2 is finished and the medium becomes an idle state again, each of the STA 1 and the STA 5 waits for a DIFS and resumes the stopped backoff count. That is, each of the STA 1 and the STA 5 may start frame transmission after counting down the remaining backoff slot corresponding to the remaining backoff time. The STA 5 starts frame transmission because the STA 5 has a shorter remaining backoff time than the STA 1.

While the STA 2 occupies the medium, data to be transmitted by an STA 4 may be generated. In this case, from a standpoint of the STA 4, when the medium becomes an idle state, the STA 4 waits for a DIFS and counts down a backoff slot corresponding to its selected random backoff count value.

FIG. 9 shows an example in which the remaining backoff time of the STA 5 coincides with the random backoff count value of the STA 4. In this case, a collision may be generated between the STA 4 and the STA 5. When a collision is generated, both the STA 4 and the STA 5 do not receive ACK, so data transmission fails. In this case, each of the STA 4 and the STA 5 doubles its CW value, select a random backoff count value, and counts down a backoff slot.

The STA 1 waits while the medium is the busy state due to the transmission of the STA 4 and the STA 5. When the medium becomes an idle state, the STA 1 may wait for a DIFS and start frame transmission after the remaining backoff time elapses.

The CSMA/CA mechanism includes virtual carrier sensing in addition to physical carrier sensing in which an AP and/or an STA directly sense a medium.

Virtual carrier sensing is for supplementing a problem which may be generated in terms of medium access, such as a hidden node problem. For the virtual carrier sensing, the MAC of a WLAN system uses a network allocation vector (NAV). The NAV is a value indicated by an AP and/or an STA which now uses a medium or has the right to use the medium in order to notify another AP and/or STA of the remaining time until the medium becomes an available state. Accordingly, a value set as the NAV corresponds to the period in which a medium is reserved to be used by an AP and/or an STA that transmit corresponding frames. An STA that receives an NAV value is prohibited from accessing the medium during the corresponding period. The NAV may be set based on the value of the duration field of the MAC header of a frame, for example.

An AP and/or an STA may perform a procedure for exchanging a request to send (RTS) frame and a clear to send (CTS) frame in order to provide notification that they will access a medium. The RTS frame and the CTS frame include information indicating a temporal section in which a wireless medium required to transmit/receive an ACK frame has been reserved to be accessed if substantial data frame transmission and an acknowledgement response (ACK) are supported. Another STA which has received an RTS frame from an AP and/or an STA attempting to send a frame or which has received a CTS frame transmitted by an STA to which a frame will be transmitted may be configured to not access a medium during a temporal section indicated by information included in the RTS/CTS frame. This may be implemented by setting the NAV during a time interval.

Interframe Space (IFS)

A time interval between frames is defined as an interframe space (IFS). An STA may determine whether a channel is used during an IFS time interval through carrier sensing. In an 802.11 WLAN system, a plurality of IFSs is defined in order to provide a priority level by which a wireless medium is occupied.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an IFS relation in a wireless communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

All of pieces of timing may be determined with reference to physical layer interface primitives, that is, a PHY-TXEND.confirm primitive, a PHYTXSTART.confirm primitive, a PHY-RXSTART.indication primitive, and a PHY-RXEND.indication primitive.

An interframe space (IFS) depending on an IFS type is as follows.

a) A reduced interframe space (IFS) (RIFS)

b) A short interframe space (IFS) (SIFS)

c) A PCF interframe space (IFS) (PIFS)

d) A DCF interframe space (IFS) (DIFS)

e) An arbitration interframe space (IFS) (AIFS)

f) An extended interframe space (IFS) (EIFS)

Different IFSs are determined based on attributes specified by a physical layer regardless of the bit rate of an STA. IFS timing is defined as a time gap on a medium. IFS timing other than an AIFS is fixed for each physical layer.

The SIFS is used to transmits a PPDU including an ACK frame, a CTS frame, a block ACK request (BlockAckReq) frame, or a block ACK (BlockAck) frame, that is, an instant response to an A-MPDU, the second or consecutive MPDU of a fragment burst, and a response from an STA with respect to polling according to a PCF. The SIFS has the highest priority. Furthermore, the SIFS may be used for the point coordinator of frames regardless of the type of frame during a non-contention period (CFP) time. The SIFS indicates the time prior to the start of the first symbol of the preamble of a next frame which is subsequent to the end of the last symbol of a previous frame or from signal extension (if present).

SIFS timing is achieved when the transmission of consecutive frames is started in a Tx SIFS slot boundary.

The SIFS is the shortest in IFS between transmissions from different STAs. The SIFS may be used if an STA occupying a medium needs to maintain the occupation of the medium during the period in which the frame exchange sequence is performed.

Other STAs required to wait so that a medium becomes an idle state for a longer gap can be prevented from attempting to use the medium because the smallest gap between transmissions within a frame exchange sequence is used. Accordingly, priority may be assigned in completing a frame exchange sequence that is in progress.

The PIFS is used to obtain priority in accessing a medium.

The PIFS may be used in the following cases.

-   -   An STA operating under a PCF     -   An STA sending a channel switch announcement frame     -   An STA sending a traffic indication map (TIM) frame     -   A hybrid coordinator (HC) starting a CFP or transmission         opportunity (TXOP)     -   An HC or non-AP QoS STA, that is, a TXOP holder polled for         recovering from the absence of expected reception within a         controlled access phase (CAP)     -   An HT STA using dual CTS protection before sending CTS2     -   A TXOP holder for continuous transmission after a transmission         failure     -   A reverse direction (RD) initiator for continuous transmission         using error recovery     -   An HT AP during a PSMP sequence in which a power save multi-poll         (PSMP) recovery frame is transmitted     -   An HT AT performing CCA within a secondary channel before         sending a 40 MHz mask PPDU using EDCA channel access

In the illustrated examples, an STA using the PIFS starts transmission after a carrier sense (CS) mechanism for determining that a medium is an idle state in a Tx PIFS slot boundary other than the case where CCA is performed in a secondary channel.

The DIFS may be used by an STA which operates to send a data frame (MPDU) and a MAC management protocol data unit management (MMPDU) frame under the DCF. An STA using the DCF may transmit data in a TxDIFS slot boundary if a medium is determined to be an idle state through a carrier sense (CS) mechanism after an accurately received frame and a backoff time expire. In this case, the accurately received frame means a frame indicating that the PHY-RXEND.indication primitive does not indicate an error and an FCS indicates that the frame is not an error (i.e., error free).

An SIFS time (“aSIFSTime”) and a slot time (“aSlotTime”) may be determined for each physical layer. The SIFS time has a fixed value, but the slot time may be dynamically changed depending on a change in the wireless delay time “aAirPropagationTime.”

The “aSIFSTime” is defined as in Equations 1 and 2 below. aSIFSTime(16 μs)=aRxRFDelay(0.5)+aRxPLCPDelay(12.5)+aMACProcessingDelay(1 or <2)+aRxTxTurnaroundTime(<2)  [Equation 1] aRxTxTurnaroundTime=aTxPLCPDelay(l)+aRxTxSwitchTime(0.25)+aTxRamoOnTime(0.25)+aTxRFDelay(0.5)  [Equation 2]

The “aSlotTime” is defined as in Equation 3 below. aSlotTime=aCCATime(<4)+aRxTxTurnaroundTime(<2)+eAirProPagationTime(<1)+aMACProoessingDelay(<2)  [Equation 3]

In Equation 3, a default physical layer parameter is based on “aMACProcessingDelay” having a value which is equal to or smaller than 1 μs. A radio wave is spread 300 m/μs in the free space. For example, 3 μs may be the upper limit of a BSS maximum one-way distance ˜450 m (a round trip is ˜900 m).

The PIFS and the SIFS are defined as in Equations 4 and 5, respectively. PIFS(16 μs)=aSIFSTime+aSlotTime  [Equation 4] DIFS(34 μs)=aSIFSTime+2 aSlotTime  [Equation 5]

In Equations 1 to 5, the numerical value within the parenthesis illustrates a common value, but the value may be different for each STA or for the position of each STA.

The aforementioned SIFS, PIFS, and DIFS are measured based on an MAC slot boundary (e.g., a Tx SIFS, a Tx PIFS, and a TxDIFS) different from a medium.

The MAC slot boundaries of the SIFS, the PIFS, and the DIFS are defined as in Equations 6 to 8, respectively. TxSIFS=SIFS−aRxTxTurnaroundTime  [Equation 6] TxPIFS=TxSIFS+aSlotTime  [Equation 7] TxDIFS=TxSIFS+2*aSlotTime  [Equation 8]

Channel State Information Feedback Method

SU-MIMO technology, in which a beamformer assigns all antennas to one beamformee for communication, enhances channel capacity through spatial-temporal diversity gain and multi-stream transmission. SU-MIMO technology uses more antennas than when MIMO technology is not used, thereby leveraging spatial degrees of freedom and contributing to the improvement of a physical layer.

MU-MIMO technology, in which a beamformer assigns antennas to multiple beamforms, can improve the performance of MIMO antennas by increasing the per-beamformee transfer rate or channel reliability through a link layer protocol for multiple access of multiple beamformees connected to the beamformer.

In MIMO environments, performance depends largely on how accurate channel information the beamformer acquires. Thus, a feedback procedure is required to acquire channel information.

There are largely two types of feedback supported to acquire channel information: one is to use a control frame and the other is to use a channel sounding procedure which does not include a data field. Sounding refers to using a preamble training field to measure channel for other purposes than data demodulation of a PPDU including the corresponding training field.

Hereinafter, a channel information feedback method using a control frame and a channel information feedback method using an NDP (null data packet) will be described in more detail.

1) Feedback Using Control Frame

In MIMO environments, a beamformer may instruct a beamformee to send channel state information feedback through the HT control field included in the MAC header, or the beamformee may report channel state information through the HT control field included in the MAC header (see FIG. 8). The HT control field may be included in a Control Wrapper frame, a QoS Data frame in which the Order subfield of the MAC header is set to 1, and a Management frame.

2) Feedback Using Channel Sounding

FIG. 11 is a diagram conceptually showing a method of channel sounding in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 11 illustrates a method of feedback of channel state information between a beamformer (e.g., AP) and a beamformee (e.g., non-AP STA) based on a sounding protocol. The sounding protocol may refer to a procedure of receiving feedback about information on channel state information.

A method of sounding channel state information between a beamformer and a beamformee based on a sounding protocol may be performed in the following steps:

(1) A beamformer transmits a VHT NDPA (VHT Null Data Packet Announcement) frame indicating sounding and transmission for feedback from a beamformee.

The VHT NDPA frame refers to a control frame that is used to indicate that channel sounding is initiated and an NDP (Null Data Packet) is transmitted. In other words, a VHT NDPA frame may be transmitted before NDP transmission to allow a beamformee to ready to feed back channel state information before receiving the NDP frame.

The VHT NDPA frame may contain AID (association identifier) information, feedback type information, etc. of a beamformee that will transmit an NDP. A more detailed description of the VHT NDPA frame will be given later.

The VHT NDPA frame may be transmitted in different ways for MU-MIMO-based data transmission and SU-MIMO-based data transmission. For example, in the case of channel sounding for MU-MIMO, the VHT NDPA frame may be transmitted in a broadcast manner, whereas, in the case of channel sounding for SU-MIMO, the VHT NDPA frame may be transmitted in a unicast manner.

(2) After transmitting the VHT NDPA frame, the beamformer transmits an NDP after an SIFS. The NDP has a VHT PPDU structure but without a data field.

Beamformees that have received the VHT NDPA frame may check the value of the AID12 subfield included in the STA information field and determine whether they are a target STA for sounding.

Moreover, the beamformees may know their order of feedback through the STA Info field included in the NDPA. FIG. 11 illustrates that feedback occurs in the order of Beamformee 1, Beamformee 2, and Beamformee 3.

(3) Beamformee 1 acquires downlink channel state information based on the training field included in the NDP and generates feedback information to send to the beamformer.

Beamformee 1 transmits a VHT compressed beamforming frame containing feedback information to the beamformer after an SIFS after receiving the NDP frame.

The VHT compressed beamforming frame may include an SNR value for a space-time stream, information on a compressed beamforming feedback matrix for a subcarrier, and so on. A more detailed description of the VHT compressed beamforming frame will be provided later.

(4) The beamformer receives the VHT compressed beamforming frame from Beamformee 1, and then, after an SIFS, transmits a Beamforming Report Poll frame to Beamformee 2 in order to acquire channel information from Beamformee 2.

The Beamforming Report Poll frame is a frame that performs the same role as the NDP frame. Beamformee 2 may measure channel state based on the transmitted Beamforming Report Poll frame.

A more detailed description of the Beamforming Report Poll frame will be given later.

(5) After receiving the Beamforming Report Poll frame, Beamformee 2 transmits a VHT Compressed Beamforming frame containing feedback information to the beamformer after an SIFS.

(6) The beamformer receives the VHT Compressed Beamforming frame from Beamformee 2 and then, after an SIFS, transmits a Beamforming Report Poll frame to Beamformee 3 in order to acquire channel information from Beamformee 3.

(7) After receiving the Beamforming Report Poll frame, Beamformee 3 transmits a VHT Compressed Beamforming frame containing feedback information to the beamformer after an SIFS.

Hereinafter, a frame used for the above-described channel sounding procedure will be discussed.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a VHT NDPA frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 12, a VHT NDPA frame may consist of a Frame Control field, a Duration field, an RA (Receiving Address) field, a TA (Transmitting Address) field, a Sounding Dialog Token field, an STA Info 1 field through STA info n field, and an FCS.

The RA field value indicates the address of a receiver or STA which receives the VHT NDPA frame.

If the VHT NDPA frame includes only one STA Info field, then the RA field is set to the address of the STA identified by the AID in the STA Info field. For example, when transmitting the VHT NDPA frame to one target STA for SU-MIMO channel sounding, an AP unicasts the VHT NDPA frame to the target STA.

On the other hand, if the VHT NDPA frame includes more than one STA Info field, then the RA field is set to the broadcast address. For example, when transmitting the VHT NDPA frame to at least one target STA for MU-MIMO channel sounding, an AP broadcasts the VHT NDPA frame.

The TA field value indicates the address of a transmitter or transmitting STA which transmits the VHT NDPA frame or a bandwidth signaling TA.

The Sounding Dialog Token field also may be called a Sounding Sequence field. The Sounding Dialog Token Number subfield in the Sounding Dialog Token field contains a value selected by the beamformer to identify the VHT NDPA frame.

The VHT NDPA frame includes at least one STA Info field. That is, the VHT NDPA frame includes an STA Info field containing information on target STAs for sounding. One STA Info field may be included for each target STA for sounding.

Each STA Info field may include an AID12 subfield, a Feedback Type subfield, and an NC Index subfield.

Table 5 shows the subfields of an STA Info field included in the VHT NDPA frame.

TABLE 5 Subfield Description AID12 Contains the AID of a target STA for sounding feedback. The AID12 subfield value is set to ‘0’ if the target STA is an AP, mesh STA, or STA that is a member of an IBSS. Feedback Indicates the type of feedback requested for the target Type STA for sounding. Set to 0 for SU-MIMO. Set to 1 for MU-MIMO. Nc Index If the Feedback Type subfield indicates MU-MIMO, then NcIndex indicates the number of columns, Nc, in the Compressed Beamforming Feedback Matrix subfield minus 1. Set to 0 for Nc = 1, Set to 1 for Nc = 2, . . . Set to 7 for Nc = 8. Reserved if the Feedback Type subfield indicates SU-MIMO.

Information contained in the above-described fields may be as defined in the IEEE 802.11 system. Also, the above-described fields are examples of the fields that may be included in the MAC frame but not limited to them. That is, the above-described fields may be substituted with other fields or further include additional fields.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an NDP PPDU in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 13, an NDP may have the VHT PPDU format shown previously in FIG. 4, but without the data field. The NDP may be precoded based on a particular precoding matrix and transmitted to a target STA for sounding.

In the L-SIG field of the NDP, the length field indicating the length of a PSDU included in the data field is set to ‘0’.

In the VHT-SIG-A field of the NDP, the Group ID field indicating whether a transmission technique used for NDP transmission is MU-MIMO or SU-MIMO is set to a value indicating SU-MIMO transmission.

The data bits of the VHT-SIG-B field of the NDP are set to a fixed bit pattern for each bandwidth.

Upon receiving the NDP, the target STA for sounding performs channel estimation and acquires channel state information.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a VHT compressed beamforming frame format in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 14, the VHT compressed beamforming frame is a VHT Action frame for supporting VHT functionality, and its frame body includes an Action field. The Action field is included in the frame body of a MAC frame to provide a mechanism for specifying extended management actions.

The Action field consists of a Category field, a VHT Action field, a VHT MIMO Control field, a VHT Compressed Beamforming Report field, and an MU Exclusive Beamforming Report field.

The Category field is set to a value indicating the VHT category (i.e., VHT Action frame), and the VHT Action field is set to a value indicating the VHT Compressed Beamforming frame.

The VHT MIMO Control field is used to feed back control information related to beamforming feedback. The VHT MIMO Control field may always be present in the VHT Compressed Beamforming frame.

The VHT Compressed Beamforming Report field is used to feed back information on a beamforming matrix containing SNR information for space-time streams used for transmitting data.

The MU Exclusive Beamforming Report field is used to feed back SNR information for spatial streams when performing a MU-MIMO transmission.

The presence and content of the VHT Compressed Beamforming Report field and the MU Exclusive Beamforming Report field are dependent on the values of the Feedback Type, Remaining Feedback Segments, and First Feedback Segment subfields of the VHT MIMO Control field.

Hereinafter, the VHT MIMO Control field, the VHT Compressed Beamforming Report field, and the MU Exclusive Beamforming Report field may be discussed more concretely.

1) The VHT MIMO Control field consists of an Nc index subfield, an Nr Index subfield, a Channel Width subfield, a Grouping subfield, a Codebook Information subfield, a Feedback type subfield, a Remaining Feedback segments subfield, a First Feedback segment subfield, a reserved subfield, and a Sounding Dialog Token Number field.

Table 6 shows the subfields of the VHT MIMO Control field.

TABLE 6 Subfield Bits Description Nc Index 3 Indicates the number of columns, Nc, in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix minus 1: Set to 0 for Nc = 1, Set to 1 for Nc = 2, . . . Set to 7 for Nc = 8. Nr Index 3 Indicates the number of rows, Nr, in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix minus 1: Set to 0 for Nr = 1, Set to 1 for Nr = 2, . . . Set to 7 for Nr = 8. Channel Width 2 Indicates the width of the channel measured to create a compressed beamforming feedback matrix: Set to 0 for 20 MHz, Set to 1 for 40 MHz, Set to 2 for 80 MHz, Set to 3 for 160 MHz or 80 + 80 MHz. Grouping 2 Indicates the subcarrier grouping, Ng, used for the compressed beamforming feedback matrix: Set to 0 for Ng = 1 (No grouping), Set to 1 for Ng = 2, Set to 2 for Ng = 4, The value 3 is reserved. Codebook 1 Indicates the size of codebook entries: Information If Feedback Type is SU: Set to 0 for bΨ = 2 and bΦ = 4, Set to 1 for bΨ = 4 and bΦ = 6. If Feedback Type is MU: Set to 0 for bΨ = 5 and bΦ = 7 Set to 1 for bΨ = 7 and bΦ = 9. Here, bΨ and bΦ indicate the number of quantization bits. Feedback Type 1 Indicates the feedback type: Set to 0 for SU-MIMO, Set to 1 for MU-MIMO. Remaining 3 Indicates the number of remaining feedback segments for the Feedback associated VHT Compressed Beamforming frame: Segments Set to 0 for the last feedback segment of a segmented report or the only feedback segment of an unsegmented report. Set to a value between 1 and 6 for a feedback segment that is neither the first nor the last of a segmented report. Set to a value between 1 and 6 for a feedback segment that is not the last feedback segment of a segmented report. In a retransmitted feedback segment, the field is set to the same value as the associated feedback segment in the original transmission. First Feedback 1 Set to 1 for the first feedback segment of a segmented report Segment or the only feedback segment of an unsegmented report; Set to 0 if it is not the first feedback segment or if the VHT Compressed Beamforming Report field and MU Exclusive Beamforming Report field are not present in the frame. In a retransmitted feedback segment, the field is set to the same value as the associated feedback segment in the original transmission. Sounding Dialog 6 Set to the value of the sounding dialog token of the NDPA Token Number frame.

In a VHT Compressed Beamforming frame not carrying all or part of the VHT Compressed Beamforming Report field, the Nc Index subfield, Nr Index subfield, Channel Width subfield, Grouping subfield, Codebook Information subfield, Feedback Type subfield, and Sounding Dialog Token Number field are reserved, the First Feedback Segment field is set to 0, and the Remaining Feedback Segments field is set to 7.

The Sounding Dialog Token Number field also may be called a Sounding Sequence Number subfield.

2) The VHT Compressed Beamforming Report field is used to carry explicit feedback information in the form of angles representing compressed beamforming feedback matrices V for use by a transmit beamformer to determine steering matrices Q.

Table 7 shows the subfields of the VHT Compressed Beamforming Report field.

TABLE 7 Subfield Bits Description Average SNR of Space- 8 Signal-to-noise ratio at the beamformee for Time Stream 1 space-time stream 1 averaged over all subcarriers . . . . . . . . . Average SNR of Space- 8 Signal-to-noise ratio at the beamformee for Time Stream Nc space-time stream Nc averaged over all subcarriers Compressed Na × (bΨ + bΦ)/2 Order of angles in the Compressed Beamforming Feedback Beamforming feedback matrix for the Matrix V for subcarrier corresponding subcarrier k = scidx(0) Compressed Na × (bΨ + bΦ)/2 Order of angles in the Compressed Beamforming Feedback Beamforming feedback matrix for the Matrix V for subcarrier corresponding subcarrier k = scidx(1) . . . . . . . . . Compressed Na × (bΨ + bΦ)/2 Order of angles in the Compressed Beamforming Feedback Beamforming feedback matrix for the Matrix V for subcarrier corresponding subcarrier k = scidx(Ns − 1)

With reference to Table 7, the VHT compressed beamforming report field may include the average SNR of each space-time stream and a Compressed Beamforming Feedback Matrix V for each subcarrier. The Compressed Beamforming Feedback Matrix is a matrix including information about channel state and can be used to calculate a channel matrix (i.e., steering matrix Q) for an MIMO-based transmission method.

scidx( ) refers to subcarriers which transmit the Compressed Beamforming Feedback Matrix subfield. Na is fixed by the Nr×Nc value (e.g., Φ11, Ψ21, . . . for Nr×Nc=2×1).

Ns refers to the number of subcarriers which transmit a compressed beamforming feedback matrix to the beamformer. A beamformee, by using a grouping method, can reduce the number of subcarriers Ns which transmit the compressed beamforming feedback matrix. For example, the number of beamforming feedback matrices provided as feedback information can be reduced by grouping a plurality of subcarriers into one group and transmitting a compressed beamforming feedback matrix for the corresponding group. Ns may be calculated from the Channel Width and Grouping subfields in the VHT MIMO Control field.

Table 8 illustrates the average SNR of Space-Time Stream subfield.

TABLE 8 Average SNR of Space-Time i subfield AvgSNR_i −128 ≤10 dB −127 −9.75 dB −126 −9.5 dB . . . . . . +126 53.5 dB +127 ≥53.75 dB

With reference to Table 8, an average SNR for each stream-space stream is obtained by calculating the average SNR of all subcarriers in the corresponding channel and mapping the calculated average SNR into the range of −128 to +128.

3) The MU Exclusive Beamforming Report field is used to carry explicit feedback information in the form of delta ( ) SNRs. The information in the VHT Compressed Beamforming Report field and the MU Exclusive Beamforming Report field can be used by an MU beamformer to determine steering matrices Q.

Table 9 shows the subfields of the MU Exclusive Beamforming Report field included in a VHT compressed beamforming frame.

TABLE 9 Subfield Bits Description Delta SNR for space-time 4 The deviation between the SNR of the corresponding stream 1 for subcarrier k = subcarrier and the average SNR of all subcarriers for sscidx(0) the corresponding space-time stream. . . . . . . Delta SNR for space-time 4 The deviation between the SNR of the corresponding stream Nc for subcarrier k = subcarrier and the average SNR of all subcarriers for sscidx(0) the corresponding space-time stream. . . . . . . Delta SNR for space-time 4 The deviation between the SNR of the corresponding stream 1 for subcarrier k = subcarrier and the average SNR of all subcarriers for sscidx(1) the corresponding space-time stream. . . . . . . Delta SNR for space-time 4 The deviation between the SNR of the corresponding stream Nc for subcarrier k = subcarrier and the average SNR of all subcarriers for sscidx(1) the corresponding space-time stream. . . . . . . Delta SNR for space-time 4 The deviation between the SNR of the corresponding stream 1 for subcarrier k = subcarrier and the average SNR of all subcarriers for sscidx(Ns′ − 1) the corresponding space-time stream. . . . . . . Delta SNR for space-time 4 The deviation between the SNR of the corresponding stream Nc for subcarrier k = subcarrier and the average SNR of all subcarriers for sscidx(Ns′ − 1) the corresponding space-time stream.

With reference to Table 9, the MU Exclusive Beamforming Report field may include an SNR for each space-time stream for each subcarrier.

Each Delta SNR subfield has a value which is in the range −8 dB to 7 dB in 1 dB increments.

scidx( ) refers to subcarrier(s) which transmit the Delta SNR subfield. Ns refers to the number of subcarriers which transmit the Delta SNR subfield to the beamformer.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a Beamforming Report Poll frame format in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 15, the Beamforming Report Poll frame consists of a Frame Control field, a Duration field, an RA (Receiving Address) field, a TA (Transmitting Address) field, a Feedback Segment Retransmission Bitmap field, and an FCS.

The RA field value is the address of the intended recipient.

The TA field value is the address of the STA transmitting the Beamforming Report Poll or a bandwidth signaling TA.

The Feedback Segment Retransmission Bitmap field indicates the requested feedback segments of a VHT Compressed Beamforming report.

If the bit in position n (n=0 for LSB and n=7 for MSB) is 1, then the feedback segment with the Remaining Feedback Segments subfield in the VHT MIMO Control field equal to n is requested. If the bit in position n is 0, then the feedback segment with the Remaining Feedback Segments subfield in the VHT MIMO Control field equal to n is not requested.

Group ID

Since a VHT WLAN system supports MU-MIMO transmission for higher throughput, an AP may transmit a data frame simultaneously to at least one MIMO-paired STA. The AP may transmit data simultaneously to an STA group including at least one STA associated with it. For example, the maximum number of paired STAs may be 4. When the maximum number of spatial streams is 8, up to 4 spatial streams may be allotted to each STA.

In a WLAN system supporting Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS), Direct Link Setup (DLS), or a mesh network, an STA trying to send data may send a PPDU to a plurality of STAs by using the MU-MIMO transmission scheme.

An example in which an AP sends a PPDU to a plurality of STAs according to the MU-MIMO transmission scheme is described below.

An AP transmits a PPDU simultaneously to paired STAs belonging to a transmission target STA group through different spatial streams. As described above, the VHT-SIG-A field of the VHT PPDU format includes Group ID information and space-time stream information. Thus, each STA may determine whether a PPDU is sent to itself. No spatial streams may be assigned to particular STAs in the transmission target STA group and therefore no data will be transmitted.

A Group ID Management frame is used to assign or change a user position corresponding to one or more group IDs. That is, the AP may inform of STAs connected to a particular group ID through the Group ID Management frame before performing a MU-MIMO transmission.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a Group ID Management frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 16, the Group ID Management frame is a VHT Action frame for supporting VHT functionality, and its frame body includes an Action field. The Action field is included in the frame body of a MAC frame to provide a mechanism for specifying extended management actions.

The Action field consists of a Category field, a VHT Action field, a VHT MIMO Control field, a Membership Status Array field, and a User Position Array field.

The Category field is set to a value indicating the VHT category (i.e., VHT Action frame), and the VHT Action field is set to a value indicating the Group ID Management frame.

The Membership Status Array field consists of a 1-bit Membership Status subfield for each group. If the Membership Status subfield is set to 0, this indicates that the STA is not a member of the group, and if the Membership Status subfield is set to 1, this indicates that the STA is a member of the group. By setting one or more Membership Status subfields in the Membership Status Array field to 1, one or more groups may be assigned to the STA.

The STA may have a user position in each group to which it belongs.

The User Position Array field consists of a 2-bit User Position subfield for each group. The user position of an STA in a group to which it belongs is indicated by the User Position subfield in the User Position Array field. An AP may assign the same user position to different STAs in each group.

An AP may transmit a Group ID Management frame only if the dot11VHTOptionImplemented parameter is true. The Group ID Management frame shall be sent only to VHT STAs that have the MU Beamformee Capable field in the VHT Capabilities element field set to 1. The Group ID Management frame shall be sent as an individually addressed frame.

An STA receives a Group ID Management frame with an RA field matching its MAC address. The STA updates GROUP_ID_MANAGEMENT, a PHYCONFIG_VECTOR parameter, based on the content of the received Group ID Management frame.

Transmission of a Group ID Management frame to a STA and any associated acknowledgement from the STA shall be complete before the transmission of an MU PPDU to the STA.

An MU PPDU shall be transmitted to a STA based on the content of the Group ID Management frame that is most recently transmitted to the STA and for which an ACK is received.

Downlink (DL) MU-MIMO Frame

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a DL multi-user (MU) PPDU format in a wireless communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 17, the PPDU is configured to include a preamble and a data field. The data field may include a service field, a scrambled PSDU field, tail bits, and padding bits.

An AP may aggregate MPDUs and transmit a data frame using an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU) format. In this case, a scrambled PSDU field may include the A-MPDU.

The A-MPDU includes a sequence of one or more A-MPDU subframes.

In the case of a VHT PPDU, the length of each A-MPDU subframe is a multiple of 4 octets. Accordingly, an A-MPDU may include an end-of-frame (EOF) pad of 0 to 3 octets after the last A-MPDU subframe in order to match the A-MPDU up with the last octet of a PSDU.

The A-MPDU subframe includes an MPDU delimiter, and an MPDU may be optionally included after the MPDU delimiter. Furthermore, a pad octet is attached to the MPDU in order to make the length of each A-MPDU subframe in a multiple of 4 octets other than the last A-MPDU subframe within one A-MPDU.

The MPDU delimiter includes a reserved field, an MPDU length field, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field, and a delimiter signature field.

In the case of a VHT PPDU, the MPDU delimiter may further include an end-of-frame (EOF) field. If an MPDU length field is 0 and an A-MPDU subframe or A-MPDU used for padding includes only one MPDU, in the case of an A-MPDU subframe on which a corresponding MPDU is carried, the EOF field is set to “1.” If not, the EOF field is set to The MPDU length field includes information about the length of the MPDU.

If an MPDU is not present in a corresponding A-MPDU subframe, the PDU length field is set to “0.” An A-MPDU subframe in which an MPDU length field has a value of “0” is used to be padded to a corresponding A-MPDU in order to match the A-MPDU up with available octets within a VHT PPDU.

The CRC field includes CRC information for an error check. The delimiter signature field includes pattern information used to search for an MPDU delimiter.

Furthermore, the MPDU includes an MAC header, a frame body, and a frame check sequence (FCS).

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a DL multi-user (MU) PPDU format in a wireless communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.

In FIG. 18, the number of STAs receiving a corresponding PPDU is assumed to be 3 and the number of spatial streams allocated to each STA is assumed to be 1, but the number of STAs paired with an AP and the number of spatial streams allocated to each STA are not limited thereto.

Referring to FIG. 18, the MU PPDU is configured to include L-TFs (i.e., an L-STF and an L-LTF), an L-SIG field, a VHT-SIG-A field, a VHT-TFs (i.e., a VHT-STF and a VHT-LTF), a VHT-SIG-B field, a service field, one or more PSDUs, a padding field, and a tail bit. The L-TFs, the L-SIG field, the VHT-SIG-A field, the VHT-TFs, and the VHT-SIG-B field are the same as those of FIG. 4, and a detailed description thereof is omitted.

Information for indicating PPDU duration may be included in the L-SIG field. In the PPDU, PPDU duration indicated by the L-SIG field includes a symbol to which the VHT-SIG-A field has been allocated, a symbol to which the VHT-TFs have been allocated, a field to which the VHT-SIG-B field has been allocated, bits forming the service field, bits forming a PSDU, bits forming the padding field, and bits forming the tail field. An STA receiving the PPDU may obtain information about the duration of the PPDU through information indicating the duration of the PPDU included in the L-SIG field.

As described above, group ID information and time and spatial stream number information for each user are transmitted through the VHT-SIG-A, and a coding method and MCS information are transmitted through the VHT-SIG-B. Accordingly, beamformees may check the VHT-SIG-A and the VHT-SIG-B and may be aware whether a frame is an MU MIMO frame to which the beamformee belongs. Accordingly, an STA which is not a member STA of a corresponding group ID or which is a member of a corresponding group ID, but in which the number of streams allocated to the STA is “0” is configured to stop the reception of the physical layer to the end of the PPDU from the VHT-SIG-A field, thereby being capable of reducing power consumption.

In the group ID, an STA can be aware that a beamformee belongs to which MU group and it is a user who belongs to the users of a group to which the STA belongs and who is placed at what place, that is, that a PPDU is received through which stream by previously receiving a group ID management frame transmitted by a beamformer.

All of MPDUs transmitted within the VHT MU PPDU based on 802.11ac are included in the A-MPDU. In the data field of FIG. 18, each VHT A-MPDU may be transmitted in a different stream.

In FIG. 18, the A-MPDUs may have different bit sizes because the size of data transmitted to each STA may be different.

In this case, null padding may be performed so that the time when the transmission of a plurality of data frames transmitted by a beamformer is ended is the same as the time when the transmission of a maximum interval transmission data frame is ended. The maximum interval transmission data frame may be a frame in which valid downlink data is transmitted by a beamformer for the longest time. The valid downlink data may be downlink data that has not been null padded. For example, the valid downlink data may be included in the A-MPDU and transmitted. Null padding may be performed on the remaining data frames other than the maximum interval transmission data frame of the plurality of data frames.

For the null padding, a beamformer may fill one or more A-MPDU subframes, temporally placed in the latter part of a plurality of A-MPDU subframes within an A-MPDU frame, with only an MPDU delimiter field through encoding. An A-MPDU subframe having an MPDU length of 0 may be called a null subframe.

As described above, in the null subframe, the EOF field of the MPDU delimiter is set to “1.” Accordingly, when the EOF field set to 1 is detected in the MAC layer of an STA on the receiving side, the reception of the physical layer is stopped, thereby being capable of reducing power consumption.

Block Ack Procedure

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a downlink MU-MIMO transmission process in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

MI-MIMO in 802.11ac works only in the downlink direction from the AP to clients. A multi-user frame can be transmitted to multiple receivers at the same time, but the acknowledgements must be transmitted individually in the uplink direction.

Every MPDU transmitted in a VHT MU PPDU based on 802.11ac is included in an A-MPDU, so responses to A-MPDUs within the VHT MU PPDU that are not immediate responses to the VHT MU PPDU are transmitted in response to BAR (Block Ack Request) frames by the AP.

To begin with, the AP transmits a VHT MU PPDU (i.e., a preamble and data) to every receiver (i.e., STA 1, STA 2, and STA 3). The VHT MU PPDU includes VHT A-MPDUs that are to be transmitted to each STA.

Having received the VHT MU PPDU from the AP, STA 1 transmits a BA (Block Acknowledgement) frame to the AP after an SIFS. A more detailed description of the BA frame will be described later.

Having received the BA from STA 1, the AP transmits a BAR (block acknowledgement request) frame to STA 2 after an SIFS, and STA 2 transmits a BA frame to the AP after an SIFS. Having received the BA frame from STA 2, the AP transmits a BAR frame to STA 3 after an SIFS, and STA 3 transmits a BA frame to the AP after an SIFS.

When this process is performed all STAs, the AP transmits the next MU PPDU to all the STAs.

ACK (Acknowledgement)/Block ACK Frames

In general, an ACK frame is used as a response to an MPDU, and a block ACK frame is used as a response to an A-MPDU.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an ACK frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 20, the ACK frame consists of a Frame Control field, a Duration field, an RA field, and a FCS.

The RA field is set to the value of the Address 2 field of the immediately preceding Data frame, Management frame, Block Ack Request frame, Block Ack frame, or PS-Poll frame.

For ACK frames sent by non-QoS STAs, if the More Fragments subfield is set to 0 in the Frame Control field of the immediately preceding Data or Management frame, the duration value is set to 0.

For ACK frames not sent by non-QoS STAs, the duration value is set to the value obtained from the Duration/ID field of the immediately preceding Data, Management, PS-Poll, BlockAckReq, or BlockAck frame minus the time, in microseconds, required to transmit the ACK frame and its SIFS interval. If the calculated duration includes a fractional microsecond, that value is rounded up to the next higher integer.

Hereinafter, the Block Ack Request frame will be discussed.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating a Block Ack Request frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 21, the Block Ack Request frame consists of a Frame Control field, a Duration/ID field, an RA field, a TA field, a BAR Control field, a BAR Information field, and a frame check sequence (FCS).

The RA field may be set to the address of the STA receiving the BAR frame.

The TA field may be set to the address of the STA transmitting the BAR frame.

The BAR Control field includes a BAR Ack Policy subfield, a Multi-TID subfield, a Compressed Bitmap subfield, a Reserved subfield, and a TID Info subfield.

Table 10 shows the BAR Control field.

TABLE 10 Subfield Bits Description BAR Ack 1 Set to 0 when the sender requires immediate ACK of a data Policy transmission. Set to 1 when the sender does not require immediate ACK of a data transmission. Multi-TID 1 Indicates the type of the BAR frame depending on the values of the Compressed 1 Multi-TID subfield and Compressed Bitmap subfield. Bitmap 00: Basic BAR 01: Compressed BAR 10: Reserved 11: Multi-TID BAR Reserved 9 TID_Info 4 The meaning of the TID_Info field depends on the type of the BAR frame. For a Basic BAR frame and a Compressed BAR frame, this subfield contains information on TIDs for which a BA frame is required. For a Multi-TID BAR frame, this subfield contains the number of TIDs.

The BAR Information field contains different information depending on the type of the BAR frame. This will be described with reference to FIG. 22.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating the BAR Information field of a Block Ack Request frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

(a) of FIG. 22 illustrates the BAR Information field of Basic BAR and Compressed BAR frames, and (b) of FIG. 22 illustrates the BAR Information field of a Multi-TID BAR frame.

Referring to (a) of FIG. 22, for the Basic BAR and Compressed BAR frames, the BAR Information field includes a Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield.

The Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield includes a Fragment Number subfield and a Starting Sequence Number subfield.

The Fragment Number subfield is set to 0.

For the Basic BAR frame, the Starting Sequence Number subfield contains the sequence number of the first MSDU for which the corresponding BAR frame is sent. For the Compressed BAR frame, the Starting Sequence Control subfield contains the sequence number of the first MSDU or A-MSDU for which the corresponding BAR frame is sent.

Referring to (b) of FIG. 22, for the Multi-TID BAR frame, the BAR Information field includes a Per TID Info subfield and a Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield, which are repeated for each TID.

The Per TID Info subfield includes a Reserved subfield and a TID Value subfield. The TID Value subfield contains a TID value.

As described above, the Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield includes fragment Number and Starting Sequence Number subfields. The Fragment Number subfield is set to 0. The Starting Sequence Control subfield contains the sequence number of the first MSDU or A-MSDU for which the corresponding BAR frame is sent.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating a Block Ack frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 23, the Block Ack (BA) frame consists of a Frame Control field, a Duration/ID field, an RA field, a TA field, a BA Control field, a BA Information field, and a Frame Check Sequence (FCS).

The RA field may be set to the address of the STA requesting the BA frame.

The TA field may be set to the address of the STA transmitting the BA frame.

The BA Control field includes a BA Ack Policy subfield, a Multi-TID subfield, a Compressed Bitmap subfield, a Reserved subfield, and a TID Info subfield.

Table 11 shows the BA Control field.

TABLE 11 Subfield Bits Description BA Ack Policy 1 Set to 0 when the sender requires immediate ACK of a data transmission. Set to 1 when the sender does not require immediate ACK of a data transmission. Multi-TID 1 Indicates the type of the BA frame depending on the values of the Compressed 1 Multi-TID subfield and Compressed Bitmap subfield. Bitmap 00: Basic BA 01: Compressed BA 10: Reserved 11: Multi-TID BA Reserved 9 TID_Info 4 The meaning of the TID_Info field depends on the type of the BA frame. For a Basic BA frame and a Compressed BA frame, this subfield contains information on TIDs for which a BA frame is required. For a Multi-TID BA frame, this subfield contains the number of TIDs.

The BA Information field contains different information depending on the type of the BA frame. This will be described with reference to FIG. 24.

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating the BA Information field of a Block Ack frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

(a) of FIG. 24 illustrates the BA Information field of a Basic BA frame, (b) of FIG. 24 illustrates the BA Information field of a Compressed BAR frame, and (c) of FIG. 24 illustrates the BA Information field of a Multi-TID BA frame.

Referring to (a) of FIG. 24, for the Basic BA frame, the BA Information field includes a Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield and a Block Ack Bitmap subfield.

As described above, the Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield includes a Fragment Number subfield and a Starting Sequence Number subfield.

The Fragment Number subfield is set to 0.

The Starting Sequence Number subfield contains the sequence number of the first MSDU for which the corresponding BA frame is sent, and is set to the same value as the immediately preceding Basic BAR frame.

The Block Ack Bitmap subfield is 128 octets in length and is used to indicate the received status of a maximum of 64 MSDUs. If a bit of the Block Ack Bitmap subfield has a value of ‘1’, it indicates the successful reception of a single MSDU corresponding to that bit position, and if a bit of the Block Ack Bitmap subfield has a value of ‘0’, it indicates the unsuccessful reception of a single MSDU corresponding to that bit position.

Referring to (b) of FIG. 24, for the Compressed BA frame, the BA Information field includes a Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield and a Block Ack Bitmap subfield.

As described above, the Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield includes a Fragment Number subfield and a Starting Sequence Number subfield.

The Fragment Number subfield is set to 0.

The Starting Sequence Number subfield contains the sequence number of the first MSDU or A-MSDU for which the corresponding BA frame is sent, and is set to the same value as the immediately preceding Basic BAR frame.

The Block Ack Bitmap subfield is 8 octets in length and is used to indicate the received status of a maximum of 64 MSDUs and A-MSDU. If a bit of the Block Ack Bitmap subfield has a value of ‘1’, it indicates the successful reception of a single MSDU or A-MSDU corresponding to that bit position, and if a bit of the Block Ack Bitmap subfield has a value of ‘0’, it indicates the unsuccessful reception of a single MSDU or A-MSDU corresponding to that bit position.

Referring to (c) of FIG. 24, for the Multi-TID BA frame, the BA Information field includes a Per TID Info subfield and a Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield, which are repeated for each TID in order of increasing TID.

The Per TID Info subfield includes a Reserved subfield and a TID Value subfield. The TID Value subfield contains a TID value.

As described above, the Block Ack Starting Sequence Control subfield includes fragment Number and Starting Sequence Number subfields. The Fragment Number subfield is set to 0. The Starting Sequence Control subfield contains the sequence number of the first MSDU or A-MSDU for which the corresponding BA frame is sent.

The Block Ack Bitmap subfield is 8 octets in length. If a bit of the Block Ack Bitmap subfield has a value of ‘1’, it indicates the successful reception of a single MSDU or A-MSDU corresponding to that bit position, and if a bit of the Block Ack Bitmap subfield has a value of ‘0’, it indicates the unsuccessful reception of a single MSDU or A-MSDU corresponding to that bit position.

UL Multiple User (MU) Transmission Method

A new frame format and numerology for an 802.11ax system, that is, the next-generation WLAN system, are actively discussed in the situation in which vendors of various fields have lots of interests in the next-generation Wi-Fi and a demand for high throughput and quality of experience (QoE) performance improvement are increased after 802.11ac.

IEEE 802.11ax is one of WLAN systems recently and newly proposed as the next-generation WLAN systems for supporting a higher data rate and processing a higher user load, and is also called a so-called high efficiency WLAN (HEW).

An IEEE 802.11ax WLAN system may operate in a 2.4 GHz frequency band and a 5 GHz frequency band like the existing WLAN systems. Furthermore, the IEEE 802.11ax WLAN system may also operate in a higher 60 GHz frequency band.

In the IEEE 802.11ax system, an FFT size four times larger than that of the existing IEEE 802.11 OFDM systems (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, 802.11n, and 802.11ac) may be used in each bandwidth for average throughput enhancement and outdoor robust transmission for inter-symbol interference. This is described below with reference to related drawings.

Hereinafter, in a description of an HE format PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention, the descriptions of the aforementioned non-HT format PPDU, HT mixed format PPDU, HT-green field format PPDU and/or VHT format PPDU may be reflected into the description of the HE format PPDU although they are not described otherwise.

FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating a high efficiency (HE) format PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25(a) illustrates a schematic configuration of the HE format PPDU, and FIGS. 25(b) to 25(d) illustrate more detailed configurations of the HE format PPDU.

Referring to FIG. 25(a), the HE format PPDU for an HEW may basically include a legacy part (L-part), an HE-part, and an HE-data field.

The L-part includes an L-STF, an L-LTF, and an L-SIG field as in a form maintained in the existing WLAN system. The L-STF, the L-LTF, and the L-SIG field may be called a legacy preamble.

The HE-part is a part newly defined for the 802.11ax standard and may include an HE-STF, a HE-SIG field, and an HE-LTF. In FIG. 25(a), the sequence of the HE-STF, the HE-SIG field, and the HE-LTF is illustrated, but the HE-STF, the HE-SIG field, and the HE-LTF may be configured in a different sequence. Furthermore, the HE-LTF may be omitted. Not only the HE-STF and the HE-LTF, but the HE-SIG field may be commonly called an HE-preamble.

The HE-SIG may include information (e.g., OFDMA, UL MU MIMO, and improved MCS) for decoding the HE-data field.

The L-part and the HE-part may have different fast Fourier transform (FFT) sizes (i.e., different subcarrier spacing) and use different cyclic prefixes (CPs).

In an 802.11ax system, an FFT size four times (4×) larger than that of a legacy WLAN system may be used. That is, the L-part may have a 1× symbol structure, and the HE-part (more specifically, HE-preamble and HE-data) may have a 4× symbol structure. In this case, the FFT of a 1×, 2×, or 4× size means a relative size for a legacy WLAN system (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, 802.11n, and 802.11ac).

For example, if the sizes of FFTs used in the L-part are 64, 128, 256, and 512 in 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz, respectively, the sizes of FFTs used in the HE-part may be 256, 512, 1024, and 2048 in 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz, respectively.

If an FFT size is larger than that of a legacy WLAN system as described above, subcarrier frequency spacing is reduced. Accordingly, the number of subcarriers per unit frequency is increased, but the length of an OFDM symbol is increased.

That is, if a larger FFT size is used, it means that subcarrier spacing is narrowed. Likewise, it means that an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT)/discrete Fourier transform (DFT) period is increased. In this case, the IDFT/DFT period may mean a symbol length other than a guard interval (GI) in an OFDM symbol.

Accordingly, if an FFT size four times larger than that of the L-part is used in the HE-part (more specifically, the HE-preamble and the HE-data field), the subcarrier spacing of the HE-part becomes ¼ times the subcarrier spacing of the L-part, and the IDFT/DFT period of the HE-part is four times the IDFT/DFT period of the L-part. For example, if the subcarrier spacing of the L-part is 312.5 kHz (=20 MHz/64, 40 MHz/128, 80 MHz/256 and/or 160 MHz/512), the subcarrier spacing of the HE-part may be 78.125 kHz (=20 MHz/256, 40 MHz/512, 80 MHz/1024 and/or 160 MHz/2048). Furthermore, if the IDFT/DFT period of the L-part is 3.2 μs (=1/312.5 kHz), the IDFT/DFT period of the HE-part may be 12.8 μs (=1/78.125 kHz).

In this case, since one of 0.8 μs, 1.6 μs, and 3.2 μs may be used as a GI, the OFDM symbol length (or symbol interval) of the HE-part including the GI may be 13.6 μs, 14.4 μs, or 16 μs depending on the GI.

Referring to FIG. 25 (b), the HE-SIG field may be divided into a HE-SIG-A field and a HE-SIG-B field.

For example, the HE-part of the HE format PPDU may include a HE-SIG-A field having a length of 12.8 μs, an HE-STF of 1 OFDM symbol, one or more HE-LTFs, and a HE-SIG-B field of 1 OFDM symbol.

Furthermore, in the HE-part, an FFT size four times larger than that of the existing PPDU may be applied from the HE-STF other than the HE-SIG-A field. That is, FFTs having 256, 512, 1024, and 2048 sizes may be applied from the HE-STFs of the HE format PPDUs of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz, respectively.

In this case, if the HE-SIG field is divided into the HE-SIG-A field and the HE-SIG-B field as in FIG. 25(b), the positions of the HE-SIG-A field and the HE-SIG-B field may be different from those of FIG. 25(b). For example, the HE-SIG-B field may be transmitted after the HE-SIG-A field, and the HE-STF and the HE-LTF may be transmitted after the HE-SIG-B field. In this case, an FFT size four times larger than that of the existing PPDU may be applied from the HE-STF.

Referring to FIG. 25(c), the HE-SIG field may not be divided into a HE-SIG-A field and a HE-SIG-B field.

For example, the HE-part of the HE format PPDU may include an HE-STF of 1 OFDM symbol, a HE-SIG field of 1 OFDM symbol, and one or more HE-LTFs.

In the manner similar to that described above, an FFT size four times larger than that of the existing PPDU may be applied to the HE-part. That is, FFT sizes of 256, 512, 1024, and 2048 may be applied from the HE-STF of the HE format PPDU of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 25(d), the HE-SIG field is not divided into a HE-SIG-A field and a HE-SIG-B field, and the HE-LTF may be omitted.

For example, the HE-part of the HE format PPDU may include an HE-STF of 1 OFDM symbol and a HE-SIG field of 1 OFDM symbol.

In the manner similar to that described above, an FFT size four times larger than that of the existing PPDU may be applied to the HE-part. That is, FFT sizes of 256, 512, 1024, and 2048 may be applied from the HE-STF of the HE format PPDU of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz, respectively.

The HE format PPDU for the WLAN system to which the present invention may be applied may be transmitted through at least one 20 MHz channel. For example, the HE format PPDU may be transmitted in the 40 MHz, 80 MHz or 160 MHz frequency band through total four 20 MHz channel. This will be described in more detail with reference to the drawing below.

Hereinafter, the PPDU format is described based on FIG. 25(b) above, for the convenience of description, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating a HE format PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 illustrates a PPDU format when 80 MHz is allocated to one STA (or OFDMA resource units are allocated to multiple STAs within 80 MHz) or when different streams of 80 MHz are allocated to multiple STAs, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 26, an L-STF, an L-LTF, and an L-SIG may be transmitted an OFDM symbol generated on the basis of 64 FFT points (or 64 subcarriers) in each 20 MHz channel.

A HE-SIG-A field may include common control information commonly received by STAs which receive a PPDU. The HE-SIG-A field may be transmitted in 1 to 3 OFDM symbols. The HE-SIG-A field is duplicated for each 20 MHz and contains the same information. Also, the HE-SIG-A field indicates full bandwidth information of the system.

Table 12 illustrates information contained in the HE-SIG-A field.

TABLE 12 Field Bits Description Bandwidth 2 Indicates a bandwidth in which a PPDU is transmitted. For example, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz or 160 MHz Group ID 6 Indicates an STA or a group of STAs that will receive a PPDU Stream 12 Indicates the number or location of spatial streams for each STA or information the number or location of spatial streams for a group of STAs UL indication 1 Indicates whether a PPDU is destined to an AP (uplink) or STA (downlink) MU indication 1 Indicates whether a PPDU is an SU-MIMO PPDU or an MU-MIMO PPDU GI indication 1 Indicates whether a short GI or a long GI is used Allocation 12 Indicates a band or a channel (subchannel index or subband index) information allocated to each STA in a bandwidth in which a PPDU is transmitted Transmission 12 Indicates a transmission power for each channel or each STA power

Information contained in each of the fields illustrated in Table 12 may be as defined in the IEEE 802.11 system. Also, the above-described fields are examples of the fields that may be included in the PPDU but not limited to them. That is, the above-described fields may be substituted with other fields or further include additional fields, and not all of the fields may be necessarily included.

The HE-STF field is used to improve AGC estimation in MIMO transmission.

The HE-SIG-B field may include user-specific information that is required for each STA to receive its own data (i.e., a Physical Layer Service Data Unit (PSDU)). The HE-SIG-B field may be transmitted in one or two OFDM symbols. For example, the HE-SIG-B field may include information about the length of a corresponding PSDU and the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) of the corresponding PSDU.

The L-STF field, the L-LTF field, the L-SIG field, and the HE-SIG-A field may be duplicately transmitted every 20 MHz channel. For example, when a PPDU is transmitted through four 20 MHz channels, the L-STF field, the L-LTF field, L-STG field, and the HE-SIG-A field may be duplicately transmitted every 20 MHz channel.

If the FFT size is increased, a legacy STA that supports conventional IEEE 802.11a/g/n/ac may be unable to decode a corresponding PPDU. For coexistence between a legacy STA and a HE STA, the L-STF, L-LTF, and L-SIG fields are transmitted through 64 FFT in a 20 MHz channel so that they can be received by a legacy STA. For example, the L-SIG field may occupy a single OFDM symbol, a single OFDM symbol time may be 4 μs, and a GI may be 0.8 μs.

An FFT size per unit frequency may be further increased from the HE-STF (or from the HE-SIG-A). For example, 256 FFT may be used in a 20 MHz channel, 512 FFT may be used in a 40 MHz channel, and 1024 FFT may be used in an 80 MHz channel. If the FFT size is increased, the number of OFDM subcarriers per unit frequency is increased because spacing between OFDM subcarriers is reduced, but an OFDM symbol time may be increased. In order to improve system efficiency, the length of a GI after the HE-STF may be set equal to the length of the GI of the HE-SIG-A.

The HE-SIG-A field includes information that is required for a HE STA to decode a HE PPDU. However, the HE-SIG-A field may be transmitted through 64 FFT in a 20 MHz channel so that it may be received by both a legacy STA and a HE STA. The reason for this is that a HE STA is capable of receiving conventional HT/VHT format PPDUs in addition to a HE format PPDU. In this case, it is required that a legacy STA and a HE STA distinguish a HE format PPDU from an HT/VHT format PPDU, and vice versa.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating a HE format PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 27, it is identical to that illustrated in FIG. 26 above, except that the HE-SIG-B field comes next to the HE-SIG-A field. In this case, an FFT size per unit frequency may be further increased from the HE-STF (or from the HE-SIG-B). For example, from the HE-STF (or from the HE-SIG-B), 256 FFT may be used in a 20 MHz channel, 512 FFT may be used in a 40 MHz channel, and 1024 FFT may be used in an 80 MHz channel.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating a HE format PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 28, it is assumed that 20 MHz channels are allocated to different STAs (e.g., STA 1, STA 2, STA 3, and STA 4).

Referring to FIG. 28, the HE-SIG B field is located next to the HE-SIG A field. In this case, an FFT size per unit frequency may be more increased from the HE-STF (or HE-SIG-B). For example, 256 FFT from the HE-STF (or HE-SIG-B) may be used in the 20 MHz channel, 512 FFT may be used in the 40 MHz channel, and 1024 FFT may be used in the 80 MHz channel.

Information transmitted in each of the fields in a PPDU is the same as illustrated in FIG. 26 above, so its description will be omitted.

The HE-SIG-B field contains information specific to each STA, but is encoded over the entire band (that is, indicated by the HE-SIG-A field). That is, the HE-SIG-B field contains information on all STAs and is received by all the STAs.

The HE-SIG-B field may indicate information on a frequency bandwidth allocated to each STA and/or stream information for the corresponding frequency bandwidth. For example, in the HE-SIG-B of FIG. 28, a first 20 MHz bandwidth may be allocated to STA 1, a second 20 MHz bandwidth may be allocated to STA 2, a third 20 MHz bandwidth may be allocated to STA 3, and a fourth 20 MHz bandwidth may be allocated to STA 4. Also, a first 40 MHz bandwidth may be allocated to STA 1 and STA 2, and a second 40 MHz bandwidth may be allocated to STA 3 and STA 4. In this case, different streams may be allocated to STA 1 and STA 2, and different streams may be allocated to STA 3 and STA 4.

Moreover, a HE-SIG C field may be defined and added to what is illustrated in FIG. 28. In this case, in the HE-SIG-B field, information on all STAs is transmitted over the entire bandwidth, and control information specific to each STA may be transmitted every 20 MHz.

In addition, same as the FIG. 26 to FIG. 28, the HE-SIG-B field may not be transmitted throughout the entire band, but may be transmitted in a unit of 20 MHz as the same as the HE-SIG-A field. This will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings below.

FIG. 29 is a diagram exemplifying an HE format PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 29, a case is assumed that 20 MHz channels are allocated to different STAs (e.g., STA 1, STA 2, STA 3 and STA4).

Referring to FIG. 29, like the case of FIG. 28, the HE-SIG B field is located next to the HE-SIG A field. However, the HE-SIG B field may not be transmitted throughout the entire band, but may be transmitted in a unit of 20 MHz as the same as the HE-SIG-A field.

In this case, an FFT size per unit frequency may be more increased from the HE-STF (or HE-SIG-B). For example, 256 FFT from the HE-STF (or HE-SIG-B) may be used in the 20 MHz channel, 512 FFT may be used in the 40 MHz channel, and 1024 FFT may be used in the 80 MHz channel.

Since the information transmitted in each field included in a PPDU is the same as the example of FIG. 26, the description for it will be omitted below.

The HE-SIG A field is transmitted with being duplicated in a unit of 20 MHz.

The HE-SIG B field may indicate the frequency bandwidth information allocated to each STA and/or the stream information in the corresponding frequency band.

The HE-SIG B field may be transmitted in a unit of 20 MHz as the same as the HE-SIG A field. Since the HE-SIG B field includes the information of each STA, the information of each STA may be included in each HE-SIG B field in a unit of 20 MHz. In this case, although the example of FIG. 29 shows the case that 20 MHz is allocated to each STA, in the case that 40 MHz is allocated to an STA, the HE-SIG B field may be transmitted with being duplicated in a unit of 20 MHz.

In addition, the information of all STAs is included in the HE-SIG B field (i.e., the information specified to each STA is merged) and the HE-SIG B field may be transmitted with being duplicated in a unit of 20 MHz as the same as the HE-SIG A field.

As exemplified in FIG. 27 to FIG. 29, in the case that the HE-SIG B field is located in front of the HE STF field and the HE-LTF field, the HE-SIG B field is configured with a short symbol length using 64 FFTs in 20 MHz band. As exemplified in FIG. 26, in the case that the HE-SIG B field is located behind of the HE STF field and the HE-LTF field, the HE-SIG B field is configured with a long symbol length using 256 FFTs in 20 MHz band.

In the case that a part of the bandwidth of which interference level from an adjacent BSS is small in the situation that different bandwidth is supported for each BSS, it may be more preferable that the HE-SIG B field is not transmitted through the entire band as described above.

In FIG. 26 to FIG. 29, the data field is a payload, and may include a SERVICE field, a scrambled PSDU, tail bits and padding bits.

FIG. 30 illustrates an example of phase rotation for classification of HE format PPDUs.

For classification of HE format PPDUs, the phases of 3 OFDM symbols transmitted after the L-SIG field may be used in a HE format PPDU.

Referring to FIG. 30, the phases of the OFDM symbol #1 and the OFDM symbol #2 are not rotated, but the phase of the OFDM symbol #3 is rotated counterclockwise by 90 degrees. That is, the OFDM symbols #1 and #2 is modulated by BPSK, and the OFDM symbol #3 is modulated by QBPSK.

An STA attempts to decode the first to third OFDM symbols transmitted after the L-SIG field of the received PDU, based on the constellations illustrated in (b) of FIG. 30. If the STA succeeds in decoding, the corresponding PPDU may be classified as an HT format PPDU.

Here, if the HE-SIG-A field is transmitted in 3 OFDM symbols after the L-SIG field, it may be said that all the OFDM symbols #1 to #3 are used to send the HE-SIG-A field.

A multi-user UL transmission method in a WLAN system is described below.

A method of transmitting, by an AP operating in a WLAN system, data to a plurality of STAs on the same time resource may be called downlink multi-user (DL MU) transmission. In contrast, a method of transmitting, by a plurality of STAs operating in a WLAN system, data to an AP on the same time resource may be called uplink multi-user (UL MU) transmission.

Such DL MU transmission or UL MU transmission may be multiplexed on a frequency domain or a space domain.

If DL MU transmission or UL MU transmission is multiplexed on the frequency domain, different frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers or tones) may be allocated to each of a plurality of STAs as DL or UL resources based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDMA). A transmission method through different frequency resources in such the same time resources may be called “DL/UL MU OFDMA transmission.”

If DL MU transmission or UL MU transmission is multiplexed on the space domain, different spatial streams may be allocated to each of a plurality of STAs as DL or UL resources. A transmission method through different spatial streams on such the same time resources may be called “DL/UL MU MIMO transmission.”

Current WLAN systems do not support UL MU transmission due to the following constraints.

Current WLAN systems do not support synchronization for the transmission timing of UL data transmitted by a plurality of STAs. For example, assuming that a plurality of STAs transmits UL data through the same time resources in the existing WLAN system, in the present WLAN systems, each of a plurality of STAs is unaware of the transmission timing of UL data of another STA. Accordingly, an AP may not receive UL data from each of a plurality of STAs on the same time resource.

Furthermore, in the present WLAN systems, overlap may occur between frequency resources used by a plurality of STAs in order to transmit UL data. For example, if a plurality of STAs has different oscillators, frequency offsets may be different. If a plurality of STAs having different frequency offsets performs UL transmission at the same time through different frequency resources, frequency regions used by a plurality of STAs may partially overlap.

Furthermore, in existing WLAN systems, power control is not performed on each of a plurality of STAs. An AP dependent on the distance between each of a plurality of STAs and the AP and a channel environment may receive signals of different power from a plurality of STAs. In this case, a signal having weak power may not be relatively detected by the AP compared to a signal having strong power.

Accordingly, an embodiment of the present invention proposes an UL MU transmission method in a WLAN system.

FIG. 31 is a diagram illustrating an uplink multi-user transmission procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 31, an AP may instruct STAs participating in UL MU transmission to prepare for UL MU transmission, receive an UL MU data frame from these STAs, and send an ACK frame (BA (Block Ack) frame) in response to the UL MU data frame.

First of all, the AP instructs STAs that will transmit UL MU data to prepare for UL MU transmission by sending an UL MU Trigger frame 3110. Here, the term UL MU scheduling frame may be called “UL MU scheduling frame”.

Here, the UL MU Trigger frame 3110 may contain control information such as STA ID (identifier)/address information, information on the allocation of resources to be used by each STA, and duration information.

The STA ID/address information refers to information on the identifier or address for specifying an STA that transmits uplink data.

The resource allocation information refers to information on uplink transmission resources allocated to each STA (e.g., information on frequency/subcarriers allocated to each STA in the case of UL MU OFDMA transmission and a stream index allocated to each STA in the case of UL MU MIMO transmission).

The duration information refers to information for determining time resources for transmitting an uplink data frame sent by each of multiple STAs.

For example, the duration information may include period information of a TXOP (Transmit Opportunity) allocated for uplink transmission of each STA or information (e.g., bits or symbols) on the uplink frame length.

Also, the UL MU Trigger frame 3110 may further include control information such as information on an MCS to be used when each STA sends an UL MU data frame, coding information, etc.

The above-mentioned control information may be transmitted in a HE-part (e.g., the HE-SIG-A field or HE-SIG-B field) of a PPDU for delivering the UL MU Trigger frame 3110 or in the control field of the UL MU Trigger frame 3110 (e.g., the Frame Control field of the MAC frame).

The PPDU for delivering the UL MU Trigger frame 3110 starts with an L-part (e.g., the L-STF field, L-LTF field, and L-SIG field). Accordingly, legacy STAs may set their NAV (Network Allocation Vector) by L-SIG protection through the L-SIG field. For example, in the L-SIG, legacy STAs may calculate a period for NAV setting (hereinafter, ‘L-SIG protection period’) based on the data length and data rate. The legacy STAs may determine that there is no data to be transmitted to themselves during the calculated L-SIG protection period.

For example, the L-SIG protection period may be determined as the sum of the value of the MAC Duration field of the UL MU Trigger frame 3110 and the remaining portion after the L-SIG field of the PPDU delivering the UL MU Trigger frame 3110. Accordingly, the L-SIG protection period may be set to a period of time until the transmission of an ACK frame 3130 (or BA frame) transmitted to each STA, depending on the MAC duration value of the UL MU Trigger frame 3110.

Hereinafter, a method of resource allocation to each STA for UL MU transmission will be described in more detail. A field containing control information will be described separately for convenience of explanation, but the present invention is not limited to this.

A first field may indicate UL MU OFDMA transmission and UL MU MIMO transmission in different ways. For example, ‘0’ may indicate UL MU OFDMA transmission, and ‘1’ may indicate UL MU MIMO transmission. The first field may be 1 bit in size.

A second field (e.g., STA ID/address field) indicates the IDs or addresses of STAs that will participate in UL MU transmission. The size of the second field may be obtained by multiplying the number of bits for indicating an STA ID by the number of STAs participating in UL MU. For example, if the second field has 12 bits, the ID/address of each STA may be indicated in 4 bits.

A third field (e.g., resource allocation field) indicates a resource region allocated to each STA for UL MU transmission. Each STA may be sequentially informed of the resource region allocated to it according to the order in the second field.

If the first field has a value of 0, this indicates frequency information (e.g., frequency index, subcarrier index, etc.) for UL MU transmission in the order of STA IDs/addresses in the second field, and if the first field has a value of 1, this indicates MIMO information (e.g., stream index, etc.) for UL MU transmission in the order of STA IDs/addresses in the second field.

In this case, a single STA may be informed of multiple indices (i.e., frequency/subcarrier indices or stream indices). Thus, the third field may be configured by multiplying the number of bits (or which may be configured in a bitmap format) by the number of STAs participating in UL MU transmission.

For example, it is assumed that the second field is set in the order of STA 1, STA 2, . . . , and the third field is set in the order of 2, 2, . . . .

In this case, if the first field is 0, frequency resources may be allocated to STA 1 and STA2, sequentially in the order of higher frequency region (or lower frequency region). In an example, when 20 MHz OFDMA is supported in an 80 MHz band, STA 1 may use a higher (or lower) 40 MHz band and STA 2 may use the subsequent 40 MHz band.

On the other hand, if the first field is 1, streams may be allocated to STA 1 and STA 2, sequentially in the order of higher-order (or lower-order) streams. In this case, a beamforming scheme for each stream may be prescribed, or the third field or fourth field may contain more specific information on the beamforming scheme for each stream.

Each STA sends a UL MU Data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 to an AP based on the UL MU Trigger frame 3110. That is, each STA may send a UL MU Data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 to an AP after receiving the UL MU Trigger frame 3110 from the AP.

Each STA may determine particular frequency resources for UL MU OFDMA transmission or spatial streams for UL MU MIMO transmission, based on the resource allocation information in the UL MU Trigger frame 3110.

Specifically, for UL MU OFDMA transmission, each STA may send an uplink data frame on the same time resource through a different frequency resource.

Here, each of STA 1 to STA 3 may be allocated different frequency resources for uplink data frame transmission, based on the STA ID/address information and resource allocation information included in the UL MU Trigger frame 3110. For example, the STA ID/address information may sequentially indicate STA 1 to STA 3, and the resource allocation information may sequentially indicate frequency resource 1, frequency resource 2, and frequency resource 3. In this case, STA 1 to STA 3 sequentially indicated based on the STA ID/address information may be allocated frequency resource 1, frequency resource 2, and frequency resource 3, which are sequentially indicated based on the resource allocation information. That is, STA 1, STA 2, and STA 3 may send the uplink data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 to the AP through frequency resource 1, frequency resource 2, and frequency resource 3, respectively.

For UL MU MIMO transmission, each STA may send an uplink data frame on the same time resource through at least one different stream among a plurality of spatial streams.

Here, each of STA 1 to STA 3 may be allocated spatial streams for uplink data frame transmission, based on the STA ID/address information and resource allocation information included in the UL MU Trigger frame 3110. For example, the STA ID/address information may sequentially indicate STA 1 to STA 3, and the resource allocation information may sequentially indicate spatial stream 1, spatial stream 2, and spatial stream 3. In this case, STA 1 to STA 3 sequentially indicated based on the STA ID/address information may be allocated spatial stream 1, spatial stream 2, and spatial stream 3, which are sequentially indicated based on the resource allocation information. That is, STA 1, STA 2, and STA 3 may send the uplink data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 to the AP through spatial stream 1, spatial stream 2, and spatial stream 3, respectively.

The PPDU for delivering the uplink data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 may have a new structure, even without an L-part.

For UL MU MIMO transmission or for UL MU OFDMA transmission in a subband below 20 MHz, the L-part of the PPDU for delivering the uplink data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 may be transmitted on an SFN (that is, all STAs send an L-part having the same configuration and content). On the contrary, for UL MU OFDMA transmission in a subband above 20 MHz, the L-part of the PPDU for delivering the uplink data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 may be transmitted every 20 MHz.

As long as the information in the UL MU Trigger frame 3110 suffices to construct an uplink data frame, the HE-SIG field (i.e., a part where control information for a data frame configuration scheme is transmitted) in the PPDU delivering the uplink data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 may not be required. For example, the HE-SIG-A field and/or the HE-SIG-B field may not be transmitted. Also, the HE-SIG-A field and the HE-SIG C field may be transmitted, but the HE-SIG-B field may not be transmitted.

An AP may send an ACK Frame 3130 (or BA frame) in response to the uplink data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 received from each STA. Here, the AP may receive the uplink data frame 3121, 3122, and 3123 from each STA and then, after an SIFS, transmit the ACK frame 3130 to each STA.

Using the existing ACK frame structure, an RA field having a size of 6 octets may include the AID (or Partial AID) of STAs participating in UL MU transmission.

Alternatively, an ACK frame with a new structure may be configured for DL SU transmission or DL MU transmission.

The AP may send an ACK frame 3130 to an STA only when an UL MU data frame is successfully received by the corresponding STA. Through the ACK frame 3130, the AP may inform whether the reception is successful or not by ACK or NACK. If the ACK frame 3130 contains NACK information, it also may include the reason for NACK or information (e.g., UL MU scheduling information, etc.) for the subsequent procedure.

Alternatively, the PPDU for delivering the ACK frame 3130 may be configured to have a new structure without an L-part.

The ACK frame 3130 may contain STA ID or address information, but the STA ID or address information may be omitted if the order of STAs indicated in the UL MU Trigger frame 3110 also applies to the ACK frame 3130.

Moreover, the TXOP (i.e., L-SIG protection period) of the ACK frame 3130 may be extended, and a frame for the next UL MU scheduling or a control frame containing adjustment information for the next UL MU transmission may be included in the TXOP.

Meanwhile, an adjustment process may be added to synchronize STAs for UL MU transmission.

FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating an uplink multi-user transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, description of the same parts as illustrated in FIG. 31 above will be omitted for convenience of explanation.

Referring to FIG. 32, an AP may instruct STAs for use in UL MU to prepare for UL MU, and, after an adjustment process for synchronization between the STAs for UL MU, receive an UL MU data frame and send an ACK.

First of all, the AP instructs STAs that will transmit UL MU data to prepare for UL MU transmission by sending an UL MU Trigger frame 3210.

Having received the UL MU Trigger frame 3210 from the AP, each STA sends a Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 to the AP. Here, each STA may receive the UL MU Trigger frame 3210 and, after an SIFS, send the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3233 to the AP.

Having received the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 from each STA, the AP sends an Adjustment frame 3230 to each STA. Here, the AP may receive the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3233, and, after an SIFS, send the Adjustment frame 3230.

The procedure for sending and receiving the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223, and the Adjustment frame 3230 is a procedure for adjusting differences in timing/frequency/power among STAs for UL MU data frame transmission. That is, STAs send their Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3233, and the AP informs each STA of adjustment information for adjusting differences in timing/frequency/power based on these values, through the Adjustment frame 3230 so that the STAs adjust and transmit these values in next UL MU data frame. Also, this procedure is performed after the UL MU Trigger frame 3210, thereby allowing the STAs time for preparing to configure a data frame according to their scheduling.

More specifically, each of STAs indicated by the UL MU Trigger frame 3210 send the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 to an indicated or specified resource region. Here, the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 sent from each STA may be multiplexed by TDM (time division multiplexing), CDM (code division multiplexing) and/or SDM (spatial division multiplexing).

For example, if the order of STAs indicated by the UL MU Trigger frame 3210 is STA 1, STA 2, and STA 3, and the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 of each STA is multiplexed by CDM, STA 1, STA 2, and STA 3 may sequentially transmit Sequence 1, Sequence 2, and Sequence 3, respectively, to the AP.

In order for each STA to multiplex the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 by TDM, CDM and/or SDM and transmit them, resources (e.g., time/sequence/streams) to be used by each STA may be indicated or defined in advance to each STA.

Also, a PPDU for delivering the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 may not include an L-part, or may be transmitted by a physical layer signal alone without the MAC frame.

Having received the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 from each STA, the AP sends an Adjustment frame 3230 to each STA.

In this case, the AP may transmit the Adjustment frame 3230 to each STA by a DL SU transmission scheme or a DL MU transmission scheme. That is, for DL SU transmission, the adjustment frame 3230 may be sequentially transmitted to each STA participating in UL MU transmission, and for DL MU transmission the adjustment frame 3230 may be simultaneously transmitted to each STA participating in UL MU transmission through resources (i.e., frequencies or streams) allocated to each STA.

The Adjustment frame 3230 may contain STA ID or address information, but the STA ID or address information may be omitted if the order of STAs indicated in the UL MU Trigger frame 3210 also applies to the UL MU Trigger frame 3210.

Moreover, the Adjustment frame 3230 may include an Adjustment field.

The Adjustment field may contain information for adjusting differences in timing/frequency/power. Here, adjustment information refers to information for correcting gaps in timing/frequency/power which may be generated from signals the AP receives from the STAs. Besides, any information may be contained in the Adjustment frame 3230 as long as it can adjust differences in timing/frequency/power between the STAs based on the Sync signals 3221, 3222, and 3223 received by the AP.

The PPDU for delivering the Adjustment frame 3230 may have a new structure, even without an L-part.

Meanwhile, a procedure for sending and receiving the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 and the Adjustment frame 3230 may be performed before each STA transmits the UL MU Trigger frame 3210.

Moreover, the transmission of the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 may be omitted, and the AP may include adjustment information in the UL MU Trigger frame 3210 and transmit it by implicit measurement. For example, in a pre-procedure to be described later, the AP may generate adjustment information for adjusting differences in timing/frequency/power among the STAs through an NDP or buffer status/sounding frame which is sent from each STA, and send the adjustment information to each STA through the UL MU Trigger frame.

In addition, in the case of STAs that require no adjustment (for example, in a case where an adjustment procedure among STAs that will perform UL MU transmission has been already completed), the procedure for sending and receiving the Sync signal 3221, 3222, and 3223 and the Adjustment frame 3230 may be omitted.

Further, in a case where only some part requires adjustment, adjustment may be performed on that part only. For example, if the length of the CP (cyclic prefix) of an UL MU data frame is long enough such that asynchrony between STAs will not be a problem, the procedure for adjusting time differences may be omitted. Also, if there is a sufficiently long guard band among STAs for UL MU OFDMA transmission, the procedure for adjusting frequency differences may be omitted.

Each STA sends an UL MU Data frame 3241, 3242, and 3243 to the AP based on the UL MU Trigger frame 3210 and Adjustment frame 3230 transmitted by the AP. Here, each STA may receive the Adjustment frame 3230 from the AP and, after an SIFS, send the UL MU Data frame 3241, 3242, and 3243 to the AP.

The AP may send AP an ACK Frame 3250 (or BA (Block Ack) frame) in response to the uplink data frame 3241, 3242, and 3243 received from each STA. Here, the AP may receive the uplink data frame 3241, 3242, and 3243 from each STA and then, after an SIFS, transmit the ACK frame 3250 to each STA.

FIG. 33 is a diagram illustrating a unit of resource allocation in an OFDMA multi-user transmission technique according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the DL/UL OFDMA transmission technique is used, in a PPDU bandwidth, a plurality of resource units may be defined in a unit of n tones (or subcarriers).

The resource unit means a unit of allocating the frequency resource for the DL/UL OFDMA transmission.

One or more resource units are allocated to a single STA as a DL/UL frequency resource, and different resource units may be allocated to each of a plurality of STAs.

FIG. 33 illustrates the case that a PPDU bandwidth is 20 MHz.

As shown in FIG. 33, the number of tones that configure a resource unit may be various.

For example, according to the resource unit configuration scheme shown in FIG. 33(a), a single resource unit may include 26 tones. In addition, according to the resource unit configuration scheme shown in FIG. 33(b), a single resource unit may include 52 tones or 26 tones. Further, according to the resource unit configuration scheme shown in FIG. 33(c), a single resource unit may include 106 tones or 26 tones. In addition, according to the resource unit configuration scheme shown in FIG. 33(d), a single resource unit may include 242 tones.

In the case that a resource unit is configured as shown in FIG. 33(a), up to 9 STAs may be supported in 20 MHz band for the DL/UL OFDMA transmission. In addition, in the case that a resource unit is configured as shown in FIG. 33(b), up to 5 STAs may be supported in 20 MHz band for the DL/UL OFDMA transmission. Further, in the case that a resource unit is configured as shown in FIG. 33(c), up to 3 STAs may be supported in 20 MHz band for the DL/UL OFDMA transmission. In addition, in the case that a resource unit is configured as shown in FIG. 32(d), the 20 MHz band may be allocated to a single STA.

Based on the number of STA that participates in the DL/UL OFDMA transmission and/or the amount of data that the corresponding STA transmits or receives, a resource unit configuration scheme may be determined among FIG. 33(a) to FIG. 33(d).

Among the whole resource units determined according to the resource unit configuration scheme as shown in FIG. 33(a) to FIG. 33(c), only a part of the resource units may be used for the DL/UL OFDMA transmission. For example, in the case that a resource unit is configured as shown in FIG. 33(a) in 20 MHz, each of the resource units may be allocated to the STAs less than 9, respectively, and the remaining resource unit may not be allocated to any STA.

In the case of a DL OFDMA transmission, a data field of a PPDU is transmitted with being multiplexed in the frequency domain in a unit of the resource unit allocated to each STA.

On the contrary, in the case of a UL OFDMA transmission, a data field of a PPDU may be configured in a unit of the resource unit allocated to each STA and transmitted to an AP simultaneously. As such, since each STA simultaneously transmits a PPDU, an AP, which is a receiver terminal, may recognize that a data field of a PPDU transmitted from each STA is multiplexed and transmitted in the frequency domain.

In addition, in the case that a DL/UL OFDMA transmission and a DL/UL MU-MIMO transmission are supported at the same time, a resource unit may include a plurality of streams in the spatial domain. And, one or more streams are allocated to a single STA as a DL/UL spatial resource, and different streams may be allocated to a plurality of STAs.

For example, the resource unit including 106 tones in FIG. 33(c) or the resource unit including 242 tones in FIG. 33(d) may include a plurality of streams in the spatial domain and may support the DL/UL OFDMA and the DL/UL MU-MIMO at the same time.

The resource unit configuration scheme of the 20 MHz band in a unit of 20 MHz band described above may be identically applied to the resource unit configuration scheme of the bandwidth of 40 MHz or more. In addition, the smallest resource unit (i.e., a resource unit including 26 tones) may be further configured in the center of the bandwidth additionally.

FIG. 34 is a diagram illustrating a multi-user transmission procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention. In relation to the drawing, the overlapped description with FIG. 31 and FIG. 32 will be omitted.

An AP may transmit a DL MU frame to at least one STA, and the STA that receives the DL MU frame may transmit an ACK frame (or Block Ack (BA) frame) to the AP in response to the received DL MU frame. In addition, by transmitting a UL MU trigger frame, the AP may instruct STAs that are going to transmit the UL MU data to prepare the UL MU transmission and provide the information (i.e., trigger information) for an MU transmission.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 34(a), the AP may transmit the DL MU frame and the trigger frame using different time resources (or at different times). Since this is overlapped with the description in relation to FIGS. 31 and 32, the overlapped description will be omitted.

Or, as shown in FIG. 34(b), the AP may transmit the DL MU frame and the trigger frame using the same time resources (or at the same time). In this case, the DL MU frame and the trigger frame may be performed through the DL MU transmission at the same time with being included in the same DL MU PPDU. As such, the scheme in which the DL MU frame and the trigger frame are transmitted with being included in a single DL MU PPDU may be referred to as ‘cascade scheme’. The STA that receives the DL MU frame and the trigger frame together may perform the UL MU transmission of the UL MU frame in response to the trigger frame and the ACK frame in response to the DL MU frame using a single UL MU PPDU. That is, in response to the received DL MU PPDU, the STA may perform the UL MU transmission of a single UL MU PPDU that includes the UL MU frame and the ACK frame.

According to the embodiment described above, since the overhead is decreased due to the trigger frame, the SIFS and the physical preamble, an effect is occurred that the time resource is saved and the data transmission rate increases.

Hereinafter, based on the description above, various embodiments of the present invention that perform the DL MU transmission of the DL MU frame and the trigger frame using a single DL MU PPDU will be described in detail.

FIG. 35 is a diagram exemplifying a PPDU structure that carries trigger information according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that a PPDU does not carry a DL MU frame in this embodiment, for the convenience of description.

The trigger information for a UL MU transmission may be performed through a DL MU transmission with being included in a DL MU PPDU, largely, in two methods below.

1. The Case that the Trigger Information is Transmitted in NDP Format

As a first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 35(a), the trigger information may be performed through the DL MU transmission with being included in the HE-SIG B field (or HE-SIG field) which is included in the physical preamble of a DL MU PPDU. As such, when the trigger information is included in the HE-SIG B field, the length of the HE-SIG B field is excessively elongated, and thus, the communication performance may be degraded. Accordingly, in this specification, a second HE-SIG B field for the UL MU transmission may be additionally defined in addition to the first HE-SIG field for the DL MU transmission. This will be described in detail below in relation to FIGS. 36 to 38.

2. The Case that the Trigger Information is Transmitted in MAC Frame Format

As a second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 35(b), the trigger information may be performed through the DL MU transmission with being included in the MAC frame of the HE format which is included in the data field of a DL MU PPDU. In addition, although it is not shown in the drawing, the trigger information may be performed through the DL MU transmission with being included in the MAC frame of the legacy format. Accordingly, the meaning of the MAC frame described below may commonly include the MAC frame of the HE format and the legacy format. In this case, the MAC frame including the trigger information may be referred to as a ‘trigger frame’. The trigger frame may include a single MPDU or A-MPDU format according to an embodiment. This will be described in more detail below in relation to FIGS. 39 and 40.

The first embodiment described above has an effect of small overhead. The second embodiment has flexibility in that the trigger frame is constructed using the legacy format or the HE format.

FIG. 36 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 36, a DL MU PPDU according to the first embodiment of the present invention may include a legacy preamble (including an L-STF field, an L-LTF field and an L-SIG filed), an HE-SIG A field that follows the legacy preamble, a second HE-SIC B field (or HE-SIG B for UL) 3620 that follows the HE-SIG A field, a first HE-SIG B field (or HE-SIG-B) 3610 that follows the second HE-SIC B field, an HE preamble (including HE-STF field and HE-LTF field) that follows the first HE-SIG B field 3610 and a data field that follows the preamble. The order of the fields described above is just an example, but may be constructed in various orders according to embodiments. The fields described above may be included selectively according to embodiments.

In the first HE-SIG B field 3610, the user-specific information for each STA that receives a data field (or to which a data field is allocated) of a DL MU PPDU may be included. Here, the user-specific information means the control information that is individually required for a specific STA among the STAs to which a resource (including frequency resource and space resource) is allocated by the first HE-SIG B field. The user-specific information may include at least one of indication information (e.g., an AID, a Partial AID (PAID), a Group Identifier (GID), etc.) for each STA (or receiving STA) to which the DL MU resource (frequency/space resource) is allocated, space resource allocation information for each STA, MCS information of a data field allocated for each STA, beamforming information indicating whether to transmit beamforming, Space Time Block Coding (STBC) information indicating whether to apply a space-time block coding and error correction code information.

The second HE-SIG B field 3620 may include the trigger information for the UL MU transmission. The trigger information may include at least one of indication information for each STA (or receiving STA) that performs the UL MU transmission and indication information of space resource/frequency resource for the UL MU transmission. In this case, the identifier (ID) format included in the indication information for each STA included in the second HE-SIG B field 3620 may be different from the identifier (ID) format included in the indication information for each STA included in the first HE-SIG B field 3610. For example, the identifier included in the indication information for each STA included in the second HE-SIG B field 3620 may use a newly defined ID format, not using the AID, PAID, GID, and the like used in the first HE-SIG B field 3610.

The first HE-SIG B field 3610 and the second HE-SIG B field 3620 may be distinguished through an indication bit included in each field. For example, each of the first HE-SIG B field 3610 and the second HE-SIG B field 3620 may include an indication bit of 1 bit size.

The case that an indication bit value in a specific HE-SIG B field is set to ‘1’ may mean that the corresponding HE-SIG B field is the second HE-SIG B field 3620, and the following first HE-SIG B field 3610 is additionally existed. On the contrary, the case that an indication bit value in a specific HE-SIG B field is set to ‘0’ may mean that the corresponding HE-SIG B field is the first HE-SIG B field 3610, and the following second HE-SIG B field 3620 may not be additionally existed. In addition to this, the first HE-SIG B field 3610 and the second HE-SIG B field 3620 may be distinguished in various ways, but not limited to the embodiment described above.

In the case that a DL MU PPDU includes the first HE-SIG B field 3610 and the second HE-SIG B field 3620 (i.e., in the case of including a plurality of HE-SIG B fields), all types of the information of the MCS level applied to each of the first HE-SIG B field 3610 and the second HE-SIG B field 3620 may be provided in an HE-SIG A field. In addition, the information of the number, function, type and/or use, etc. of the HE-SIG B field may be provided together in the HE-SIG A field.

In FIG. 36, the DL MU PPDU including the first HE-SIG B field 3610 and the second HE-SIG B field 3620 is shown in the order from the second HE-SIG B field 3620 to the first HE-SIG B field 3610, but not limited thereto. And, the HE-SIG B field that has lower MCS level among two HE-SIG B fields 3610 and 3620 may be preferentially located. Here, the higher/lower MCS level means the MCS level that indicates the modulation scheme of which data bit number per symbol is higher/lower, or the MCS level that indicates higher/lower code rate in the case that the modulation scheme is the same. The lower MCS level, the more beneficial for a robust transmission.

For example, it may be assumed the case that the first HE-SIG B field 3610 has the MCS level that indicates the BPSK modulation and ½ code rate and the second HE-SIG B field 3620 has the MCS level that indicates the QPSK modulation and ½ code rate. In this case, since the first HE-SIG B field 3610 has lower MCS level than the second HE-SIG B field 3620, a DL MU PPDU may be constructed in the order from the first HE-SIG B field 3610 to the second HE-SIG B field 3620.

In this case, the foregoing HE-SIG B field may provide the information on whether the following HE-SIG B field is existed, configuration information and MCS information. That is, in the case of the drawing (FIG. 36), the second HE-SIG B field 3620 may provide the information on whether the first HE-SIG B field 3610 is existed, the configuration information and the MCS information.

A data field may be allocated to at least one STA to which resource is allocated and transmitted with being multiplexed in frequency or multiplex in space according to the resource allocation information included in the first HE-SIG B field 3610.

An AP may perform the DL MU transmission of the DL MU PPDU that includes the fields described above to at least one STA. At least one STA that receives the DL MU PPDU may transmit a UL MU PPDU to the AP based on the received DL MU PPDU. In this case, similar to the DL MU frame and the trigger frame that are simultaneously transmitted through a single DL MU PPDU, the UL MU frame and the ACK frame (or BA frame) may also be simultaneously transmitted to the AP through a single UL MU PPDU. That is, the UL MU frame and the ACK frame may also be transmitted at the same time with being included in a single UL MU PPDU in the cascade scheme. This will be described in detail in relation to FIGS. 37 and 38.

FIG. 37 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU and a UL MU PPDU transmitted in response to the DL MU PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the HE-SIG B field of the DL MU PPDU may be constructed in the order from the first HE-SIG B field 3710 to second HE-SIG B field 3720. In addition, it will be described by assuming the case that the DL MU resource is allocated to each of STAs 1 to 4 and the UL MU resource is allocated to each of STAs 5 and 6. That is, it will be described by assuming the case that STAs 1 to 4 that receive the DL MU frame and STAs 5 and 6 that receive the trigger information are different.

Referring to FIG. 37(a), the first HE-SIG B field 3710 may include allocation information (or user-specific information) of the DL MU resource for STAs 1 to 4. For example, the first HE-SIG B field 3710 may include at least one of indication information for STAs 1 to 4, frequency resource allocation information and space resource allocation information. The second HE-SIG B field 3720 may include allocation information (or trigger information for the UL MU transmission) of the UL MU resource for STAs 5 and 6. For example, the second HE-SIG B field 3720 may include at least one of indication information for STAs 5 and 6, frequency resource/space resource allocation information for the UL MU transmission. Each of the data fields allocated to STAs 1 to 4 may include the DL MU frame received to each of STAs 1 to 4. The data field may be performed through the DL MU transmission by being multiplexed in frequency and/or multiplexed in space.

An AP may perform the DL MU transmission of a DL MU PPDU that includes the fields described above. STAs 1 to 6 that receive the DL MU PPDU may transmit a UL MU PPDU which is generated based on the received DL MU PPDU.

In more particular, referring to FIG. 37(b), each of STAs 1 to 4 that receives the DL MU frame may transmit an ACK frame (or BA frame) in response to the received DL MU frame. And STAs 5 and 6 that receive the trigger information may perform the UL MU transmission of the UL MU frame generated based on the trigger information with being included in a UL MU PPDU. In this case, since the ACK frame (or BA frame) of STA 1 and the UL MU frame of STA 5 are performed through the UL MU transmission by different STAs and the UL MU resource used in transmission is also different, the ACK frame of STA 1 may not be transmitted by being piggybacked in the UL MU frame of STA 5. In addition, the lengths of ACK frames transmitted for each of STAs 1 to 4 may also be different. That is, in the case that the STA receiving the DL MU frame and the STA receiving the trigger information through a single DL MU PPDU are different, it may be difficult for the receiving STAs to perform the UL MU transmission of the ACK frame and the UL MU frame using a single UL MU PPDU.

In addition, in the case that STAs 1 to 4 do not perform the UL MU transmission of the ACK frame (or BA frame) owing to various causes such as the case that STAs 1 to 4 fail to receive the DL MU frame, a certain time hole interval may occur due to the absence of ACK frame (or BA frame) transmission. In the system that adopts the contention-based channel access scheme, a medium may be occupied by other STA during the time hole interval, and consequently, the UL MU transmission of STAs 5 and 6 that receive the trigger information may be failed.

Accordingly, in order to prevent such a problem, the configuration of new DL MU PPDU and the UL MU PPDU transmitted in response to the DL MU PPDU is proposed with referent to FIG. 38 below.

FIG. 38 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU and a UL MU PPDU according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the HE-SIG B field of the DL MU PPDU may be constructed in the order from the first HE-SIG B field 3810 to second HE-SIG B field 3820. In addition, it will be described by assuming the case that the DL MU resource is allocated to each of STAs 1 to 4 and the UL MU resource is allocated to each of STAs 1 and 2. That is, it will be described by assuming the case that STAs 1 and 2 that receive the trigger information is a subset of STAs 1 to 4 that receive the DL MU frame.

Referring to FIG. 38(a), the first HE-SIG B field 3810 may include allocation information (or user-specific information) of the DL MU resource for STAs 1 to 4. For example, the first HE-SIG B field 3810 may include at least one of indication information for STAs 1 to 4, frequency resource allocation information and space resource allocation information.

The second HE-SIG B field 3820 may include allocation information (or trigger information for the UL MU transmission) of the DL MU resource for STAs 1 and 2. For example, the second HE-SIG B field 3820 may include at least one of indication information for STAs 1 and 2, frequency resource/space resource allocation information for the UL MU transmission.

The data field may include the DL MU frame received by each of STAs 1 to 4 to which the DL MU resource is allocated. The data field may be performed through the DL MU transmission by being multiplexed in frequency and/or multiplexed in space.

An AP may perform the DL MU transmission of a DL MU PPDU that includes the fields described above. STAs 1 to 4 that receive the DL MU PPDU may perform the UL MU transmission of a UL MU PPDU which is generated based on the received DL MU PPDU.

In more particular, referring to FIG. 38(b), each of STAs 1 to 2 that receives the DL MU frame and the trigger information together may perform the UL MU transmission by piggybacking an ACK frame (or BA frame) in response to the received DL MU frame in the UL MU frame generated based on the received trigger information. Hereinafter, for the convenience of description, the frame in which the ACK frame (or BA frame) is piggybacked in the UL MU frame may be referred to as ‘cascade UL MU frame’. Such a cascade UL MU frame may be performed through the UL MU transmission by identically using the DL MU resource used when transmitting the DL MU frame received in each of STAs 1 and 2.

In addition, STAs 3 and 4 that receive the DL MU frame may perform the UL MU transmission of the ACK frame (or BA frame) in response to the received DL MU frame. Even in this case, the ACK frame (or BA frame) may be performed through the UL MU transmission by identically using the DL MU resource used when transmitting the DL MU frame received in each of STAs 3 and 4.

Since each STA performs the UL MU transmission using the resource which is the same as the transmission resource of the DL MU frame received through a single DL MU PPDU, the cascade UL MU frame and the ACK frame (BA frame) described above may be performed the UL MU transmission through a single and the same UL MU PPDU. In this case, each ACK frame (BA frame) may be padded so as to have the bit size which is the same as the maximum bit size of the UL MU frame.

Referring to FIG. 38(c), the AP that receives the UL MU PPDU which is transmitted through the UL MU by STAs 1 and 2 may perform the DL SU transmission of the ACK frame (or the BA frame) in response to the received UL MU frame to STAs 1 and 2. In this case, the AP may perform the DL SU transmission of the ACK frame (or the BA frame) using a DL SU PPDU that has the same bandwidth as that of the received UL MU PPDU. In addition, the ACK frame (or the BA frame) may be transmitted through the DL SU by being duplicated in a unit of 20 MHz within the DL MU PPDU.

In this embodiment, a certain time hole does not occur due to the transmission failure of the ACK frame (or the BA frame) performed by STAs 1 to 4 (since it is transmitted through the same UL MU PPDU), the problem does not occur that the UL MU frame transmission of STAs 1 and 2 is failed owing to the medium occupation of other STA.

Considering the contents described above in relation to FIG. 37 and FIG. 38, in the case that the STA receiving the trigger information is a subset of the STA receiving the DL MU frame, it may be identified that the UL MU frame transmission of the STA is not failed. In other words, in the case that a part of the STAs receiving the DL MU frame performs the transmission of the UL MU frame, it may be identified that the corresponding UL MU frame transmission is not failed.

Accordingly, in order to prevent the transmission failure of such a UL MU frame, in the case that a subset condition is satisfied between the STA receiving the trigger information and the STA receiving the DL MU frame, an AP may perform the DL MU transmission of the DL MU PPDU in which the trigger information and the DL MU frame are included. As a result, in the UL MU PPDU which is performed through the UL MU transmission that corresponds to the DL MU PPDU, at least one cascade UL MU frame may be existed.

In addition, in order to prevent the transmission failure of the UL MU frame and to use efficiently the resource (frequency, time, space resource), another UL MU PPDU structure may be proposed, which performs the UL MU transmission of the ACK frame (or BA frame) and the UL MU frame using a single UL MU PPDU. In this case, the subset condition may not be satisfied between the STA of the DL MU reception and the STA of the UL MU transmission. This will be described in detail in relation to FIG. 42.

Meanwhile, the ACK frame (or the BA frame) may be applied to the ACK frame (or the BA frame) format defined in the 802.11a system or the 802.11ax system. However, in the case that the ACK frame (or the BA frame) is transmitted together with the UL MU frame, the ACK frame (or BA frame) may be applied to the ACK frame (or BA frame) format defined in the 802.11ax system.

Hereinafter, for the convenience of description, the ACK frame and the BA frame are commonly called ‘ACK frame’.

In the embodiment described above, the embodiment of performing the UL MU transmission using the same resource as the transmission resource of the DL MU frame which is received through a single DL MU PPDU has been described. However, the cascade UL MU frame and/or the UL MU frame may be transmitted through the UL MU using a resource that is different from the DL MU transmission resource of the DL MU frame. In this case, the HE-SIG B field may separately provide a frame format that an STA is going to perform the UL MU transmission and the indication information such as the UL MU transmission resource allocated to each STA. This will be described in detail below.

1) First Option

A method may be proposed that a UL MU resource is preferentially allocated to the STA (or the STA that is going to perform the UL MU transmission of the ACK frame only) which is included in a first HE-SIG B field 3810 but not included in a second HE-SIG B field 3820, and the remaining resource is allocated for a resource that is going to transmit the cascade UL MU frame and/or the UL MU frame. In this case, the type and size of the UL MU resource that is preferentially allocated to each STA frame may be preconfigured, and the UL MU resource may be allocated, which is preconfigured in an order of STA ID for receiving the DL MU frame included in the first HE-SIG B field 3810.

For example, the case may be assumed that STAs 1 to 4 are sequentially included in the first HE-SIG B field 3810 and the STAs that are going to perform the UL MU transmission of the ACK frame only are STAs 2 and 3. In addition, it may be assumed that the UL MU resource allocated for the ACK frame transmission is preconfigured as a single 26-tone resource unit. In this case, as the resource for transmitting the ACK frame, the resource may be allocated one by one in the order from the first 26-tone resource unit to STA 2, and to STA 3. The remaining resource unit after being allocated to the STA may be allocated to a receiving STA ID included in the second HE-SIG B field 3820.

2) Second Option

A method may be proposed that the ACK frame format for each receiving STA of the DL MU frame and the transmission resource are indicated in the first HE-SIG B field 3810. For example, the first HE-SIG B field 3810 may include an ACK frame indicator for indicating the ACK frame format for each receiving STA and the transmission resource. The ACK frame indicator may indicate whether the corresponding STA is the STA that is needed to transmit the ACK frame or the STA that is needed to transmit the cascade UL MU frame (ACK frame+UL MU frame). In the case that the corresponding STA is the STA that is needed to transmit the ACK frame, the ACK frame indicator may additionally indicate the information of the UL MU transmission resource that is going to be used for transmitting the ACK frame.

For example, the case may be assumed that the bit size of the ACK frame indicator is 1 bit.

In this case, when the bit value of the ACK frame indicator is set to ‘0’, the corresponding ACK frame indicator may indicate that the corresponding STA is the STA that is needed to transmit the cascade UL MU frame or the STA (in the case that the DL MU frame is not the ACK frame) that is not needed to transmit the ACK frame.

On the contrary, when the bit value of the ACK frame indicator is set to ‘1’, the corresponding ACK frame indicator may indicate that the corresponding STA is the STA that is needed to transmit the ACK frame.

The STA that is needed to transmit the ACK frame may transmit the ACK frame using the UL MU resource of a preconfigured size, which is allocated in the order of the receiving STA ID included in the first HE-SIG B field 3810, which is the same with the first option. Or, as described above, the ACK frame indicator may additionally indicate the information of the UL MU transmission resource that is needed to be used for transmitting the ACK frame. In this case, the STA may perform the UL MU transmission of the ACK frame using the UL MU resource indicated by the ACK frame indicator.

3) Third Option

A method may be proposed that a format of the frame that is going to perform the UL MU transmission and the information of the UL MU transmission resource of the corresponding frame may be provided for each STA in the second HE-SIG B field 3820. The second HE-SIG B field 3820 may indicate whether to transmit the ACK frame, the cascade UL MU frame or the UL MU frame as the frame format for each receiving STA (or the receiving STA that receives the DL MU frame) included in the first HE-SIG B field 3810. In this case, the second HE-SIG B field 3820 may indicate the frame format that corresponds to each receiving STA by reference to the receiving STA ID included in the first HE-SIG B field 3810 (e.g., in the order of the receiving STA ID included in the first HE-SIG B field 3810). Further, the second HE-SIG B field 3820 may also provide the allocation information of the UL MU resource that is going to be used for performing the UL MU transmission of each frame (the ACK frame, the cascade UL MU frame or the UL MU frame) for each STA.

4) Fourth Option

A method may be proposed that the UL MU resource is preferentially allocated to the STAs that transmit the cascade UL MU frame or the UL MU frame, and the remaining UL MU resource is allocated to the STA that transmits the ACK frame. Such resource allocation information for each STA may be provided through the second HE-SIG B field 3820.

5) Fifth Option

A method may be proposed that the receiving STA receiving the DL MU frame together with the trigger information is indicated in bitmap format in the second HE-SIG B field 3820. For example, when the number of STAs that receive the trigger information of the second HE-SIG B field 3820 is N, after N bits is configured in the second HE-SIG B field 3820, the bit value of the location that corresponds to the STA that additionally receives the DL MU frame within N bits may be set to ‘1’. In this case, the second HE-SIG B field 3820 may also be additionally indicated the UL MU resource allocation information for transmitting the cascade UL MU frame to the STAs corresponding to the bit position having the value ‘1’. On the contrary, the UL MU resource allocation information for transmitting the ACK frame may be indicated to the STAs corresponding to the bit position having the value ‘0’ in the method proposed in the first to fourth options.

In addition, the second HE-SIG B field 3820 may indicate the UL MU resource allocated to the STA ID of the corresponding STAs and each STA in the case that the STAs transmitting the UL MU frame only are existed.

So far, the embodiment that the trigger information is transmitted with being included in the physical preamble (i.e., the HE-SIG B field of the physical preamble) of the DL MU PPDU has been described in detail. Hereinafter, the embodiment that the trigger frame (i.e., the MAC frame format of the trigger information) including the trigger information is transmitted with being included in a data field of the DL MU PPDU will be described in detail.

In the case that the trigger frame may be constructed in the MAC frame structure, the trigger frame may include a single MPDU. In this case, the trigger frame may correspond to a type of the MAC control frame or the MAC management frame, and a trigger frame type may be newly defined in different way from it.

Or, the trigger frame may include the frame (e.g., HT-control wrapper frame) that includes the HT-control field in the MAC header.

In this case, the information for performing the UL MU transmission (i.e., the trigger information) may be included in the HT-control field in the corresponding frame. Or, the trigger information may be included in the newly defined HE-control field as an HE format in the 802.11ax system. The HE-control field may be newly defined in the 802.11ax system in the similar way of the HT-control field defined in the conventional HT format. Accordingly, the HE-control field may be included in the MAC header in the similar way of the method that the HT-control field exemplified in FIG. 6 above is included in the MAC header.

The trigger frame may be divided into two structures, largely, depending on the way of being included in a DL MU PPDU as follows.

1) Embodiment 2-1

In the case that a part of the STAs that receive the DL MU frame performs the UL MU transmission (i.e., the UL MU transmitting STA is a subset of the DL MAC frame receiving STA), a DL MU PPDU may include an A-MPDU in a data field, and the corresponding A-MPDU may include at least one MPDU that corresponds to the trigger frame and the remaining MPDU that corresponds to the DL MU frame. In this case, the information for the UL MU transmission (i.e., the trigger information) may be included in the MAC header in the corresponding A-MPDU or in the MAC frame body. This will be described in more detail in relation to FIG. 39 below.

2) Embodiment 2-2

Or, in the case that the STA receiving the DL MU frame does not perform the UL MU transmission (i.e., the UL MU transmitting STA is not a subset of the DL MAC frame receiving STA), a DL MU PPDU may include the MPDU only that corresponds to the trigger frame in a data field. In this case, the information for the UL MU transmission (i.e., the trigger information) may be included in the MAC header in the corresponding A-MPDU or in the MAC frame body. This will be described in more detail in relation to FIG. 40 below.

FIG. 39 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU structure according to the embodiment 2-1 of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 39, in the case that a part of the STAs that receive the DL MU frame performs the UL MU transmission (or, in the case that the STA receiving the DL MU frame and the trigger frame together is existed), the data field allocated to each of the part of the STAs may be constructed by the A-MPDU format as the example of FIG. 17. In this case, at least one MPDU among a plurality of MPDUs that constructs the A-MPDU may correspond to the trigger frame, and the remaining MPDU may correspond to the DL MU frame.

In this case, the position of the MPDU that includes the trigger information may be pre-designated. For example, the first MPDU among a plurality of MPDUs that constructs the A-MPDU may correspond to the trigger frame, and the remaining MPDU may correspond to the DL MU frame. In this case, an AP may indicate the pre-designated position of the MPDU to the STAs through a beacon frame and so on.

And, the data field allocated to the remaining STAs except the part of STAs may be constructed by the MPDU or the A-MPDU format, and may correspond to the DL MU frame.

Since the trigger frame included in a single A-MPDU and the receiving STA of the DL MU frame are the same, the receiving STA information of the trigger frame may not be separately requested. Accordingly, the trigger frame may not separately include the information of the STA that performs the UL MU transmission. The MPDU that corresponds to the trigger frame may include an indicator for indicating that the corresponding MPDU includes the trigger information. For example, the MPDU that includes the trigger information may indicate that the corresponding MPDU corresponds to the trigger frame using the frame subtype included in the MAC header.

Since the embodiment 2-1 described above is applied to the case that the UL MU transmitting STA is a subset of the DL MU frame receiving STA, a predetermined restriction may be existed in the UL MU scheduling.

Meanwhile, in this embodiment, the trigger frame transmitted to the STA that participates in the DL MU transmission may be referred to as a ‘unicast trigger frame’.

FIG. 40 is a diagram illustrating a DL MU PPDU structure according to the embodiment 2-2 of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 40, in the case that the STA that receives the DL MU frame does not perform the UL MU transmission (or, in the case that the STA receiving the DL MU frame and the trigger frame together is not existed), the trigger frame may be included in a specific data field among the data fields of the DL MU PPDU that carries the DL MU frame. More particularly, the transmission resource of the data field of the DL MU PPDU that carries the DL MU frame may be multiplexed according to the DL OFDMA and/or the DL MU-MIMO scheme, and the trigger frame may be carried using a specific data field of the multiplexed data fields. For example, the trigger frame may be included in the data field that corresponds to a sub band that is predetermined for transmitting the trigger frame.

In the case that the trigger frame is included in a specific data field among the data fields of the DL MU PPDU that carries the DL MU frame, the corresponding specific data field may include only a single MPDU that corresponds to the trigger frame. In this case, the information for the UL MU transmission (i.e., the trigger information) may be included in the MAC header or the MAC frame body in the corresponding MPDU. Particularly, in this embodiment, since the UL MU transmitting STA and the DL MU receiving STA are different, the STA information for receiving the trigger information may be additionally requested in addition to the DL MU receiving STA information included in the HE-SIG B field. Accordingly, different from the embodiment 2-1, in the embodiment 2-2, both of the STA information receiving the trigger frame (or the STA information that is going to perform the UL MU transmission) as the trigger information and the UL MU resource allocation information allocated to each STA may be included in the MPDU that corresponds to the trigger frame.

The specific data field that includes the trigger frame may be transmitted in broadcast way. Accordingly, the AID of the specific data field may be set to a broadcast AID, and the AID of the STAs to which the UL MU transmission is triggered may be included in the trigger frame of the specific data field. Accordingly, a single MPDU included in the specific data field (or the trigger frame included in the corresponding MPDU) may be referred to as a ‘broadcast trigger frame’. In other words, the trigger frame transmitted to the STA that does not participate in the DL MU transmission may be referred to as a ‘broadcast trigger frame’.

In the case that only one MPDU corresponding to the trigger frame is included in the trigger frame of the specific data field of the DL MU PPDU, it is required to notify that the specific data field including the trigger frame is existed to an STA.

In this case, in the HE-SIG B filed that corresponds to the corresponding data field, a trigger indicator indicating that the trigger frame is included in the corresponding data field may be included. For example, the trigger indicator of 1 bit size that indicates whether a specific data field including the trigger information is included may be included in the HE-SIG B filed that provides user-specific information of the specific data field.

Or, as described above, the HE-SIG B filed may include the broadcast AID as indication information of the corresponding data filed for the broadcast transmission of the specific data field. Accordingly, the STA may recognize that the specific data filed including the trigger frame is existed through the broadcast identification information included in the HE-SIG B filed.

In the case that the trigger frame is included in a specific data field among the data fields of the DL MU PPDU that carries the DL MU frame, the position (e.g., position of sub band, DL MU STA index, etc.) of the data field that includes the trigger frame may be pre-designated. In this case, an AP may notify the position of the pre-designated specific data field to STAs through a beacon frame, and the like.

The bit size of a specific data field that includes a single MPDU may be smaller than that of other data field (e.g., data field including A-MPDU). Accordingly, the specific data field is padded and included in a DL MU PPDU so as to have the same bit size as other data field that has the maximum bit size (or so as to be the same as the length of a DL MU PPDU).

Since the embodiment 2-2 may be applied to the case that a UL MU transmitting STA is not a subset of a DL MU frame receiving STA, the UL MU scheduling has more beneficial effect.

So far, the DL MU PPDU structure according to the second embodiment of the present invention has been described. The embodiments 2-1 and 2-2 described above may be independently applied or applied in combination according to a situation. In the case that the embodiments 2-1 and 2-2 are applied in combination, a specific data field of a DL MU PPDU may include only one MPDU that corresponds to the trigger frame, and other data field may include the trigger frame and the DL MU frame as the A-MPDU format.

For example, in the case that the DL MU receiving STA is STAs 1 and 2, and the UL MU transmitting STA is STAs 2 and 3, the trigger frame for STA 3 may be included in the first data field as an MPDU, the trigger frame and the DL MU frame for STA 2 may be included in the second data field as the A-MPDU format, and the DL MU frame for STA 1 may be included in the third data field as the MPDU format or the A-MPDU format.

FIG. 41 illustrates a table comparing the first and second embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 41, the first embodiment has the following advantage and effect.

-   -   Flexibility of UL MU scheduling.     -   Advantageous in the aspect of Resource saving/Power saving of         other STAs/UL MU STAs.

However, in the first embodiment, a problem may be existed that a bit for indicating the ACK frame is additionally requested in the HE-SIG B field (refer to the second option). In addition, in the first embodiment, a disadvantage may be existed that a new HE-SIG B field (i.e., second HE-SIG B field) is requested for indicating the UL MU resource allocation information.

The embodiment 2-1 has the following advantage and effect.

-   -   Advantageous in the aspect of Resource saving/Power saving of         other STAs/UL MU STAs.     -   Available to use the conventional DL MU frame format as it is.

However, since the embodiment 2-1 is an embodiment that may be applied in the case that the UL MU transmitting STA is a subset of the DL MU frame receiving STA, a problem is existed that a predetermined restriction is existed in the UL MU scheduling.

The embodiment 2-2 has the following advantage and effect.

-   -   Free to make a UL MU group or Flexibility of UL MU scheduling.

However, in the embodiment 2-2, a problem may be existed that a bit for indicating whether the trigger frame is existed is additionally requested in the HE-SIG B field. In addition, a problem may be existed in that the resource and power of the UL MU transmitting STAs and other STAs may be wasted. This is because a specific data field including the MPDU only that corresponds to the trigger frame is transmitted with being padded so as to have the same length as other data field. Accordingly, the DL MU resource is wasted, and a problem occurs that the STAs according to the 802.11ax system may not be slept (power waste) during the DL MU PPDU length in order to decode the trigger frame.

Hereinafter, a UL MU PPDU structure will be described, which is performed through the UL MU transmission that corresponds to the DL MU PPDU of the first and second embodiments (including embodiments 2-1 and 2-2) described above.

FIG. 42 is a diagram illustrating a UL MU PPDU according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the case is assumed and described that the DL MU frame is received in STAs 1 and 2, and the trigger frame is received in STAs 2 and 3.

The STA that receives the DL MU PPDU may generate a UL MU PPDU based on the received DL MU PPDU and perform the UL MU transmission to an AP. In this case, each STA may transmit the UL MU frame based on the trigger frame included in the DL MU PPDU, and may transmit an ACK frame in response to the DL MU frame. In this case, the method of performing the UL MU transmission of the UL MU frame and the ACK frame may be different according to embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 42(a), as an embodiment, each of the UL MU frame and the ACK frame may be performed through the UL MU transmission using separate UL MU resources. For example, the frequency resource may be divided into two regions, largely, and a first region thereof may be used for the frequency resource for the ACK frame transmission, and a second region thereof may be used for the frequency resource for the UL MU frame transmission. Further, the first region may be allocated with being separated to the STAs that transmit the ACK frame again, and the second region may also be allocated with being separated to the STAs that transmit the UL MU frame.

Accordingly, the first region for the ACK frame transmission may be allocated to STA 1 and STA 2, respectively, and the second region for the UL MU frame transmission may be allocated to STA 2 and STA 3, respectively. As a result, each of the ACK frame of STA 1, the ACK frame of STA 2, the UL MU frame of STA 2 and the UL MU frame of STA 3 may be performed through the UL MU transmission using different UL MU resources through a single UL MU PPDU.

The present embodiment has an advantage that the UL MU transmission scheme of each frame is simple. However, since the STA (STA 2, in the above embodiment) that may transmit the ACK frame and the UL MU frame at the same time transmits each frame using separate UL MU resources, a problem is in that the UL MU resource is wasted. In addition, a problem is existed in that the resource is wasted on the point that the AP receiving the corresponding UL MU PPDU is needed to decode two OFDMA packets (the OFDMA packet including the ACK frame of STA 2 and the OFDMA packet including the UL MU frame of STA 2) separately. In order to solve such a problem, the following UL MU transmission method may be proposed.

As another embodiment, referring to FIG. 42(b), the ACK frame transmitted by the same STA may be transmitted with being piggybacked in the UL MU frame. For example, STA 2 that receives the DL MU frame and the trigger frame together may perform the UL MU transmission of the ACK frame in response to the corresponding DL MU frame with being piggybacked in the UL MU frame for the corresponding trigger frame. In this case, the data field allocated to STA 2 for the UL MU transmission may be constructed in the A-MPDU format. And, at least one of a plurality of MPDUs that construct the A-MPDU may correspond to the ACK frame, and the remaining MPDU may correspond to the UL MU frame.

In the present embodiment, the UL MU resource allocation information for transmitting the ACK frame of STA 2 is not separately requested. This is because STA 2 only needs to transmit the UL MU frame with piggybacking the ACK frame. Accordingly, when performing the DL MU transmission, an AP may not separately include the UL MU resource allocation information for the ACK frame of STA 2 in the HE-SIG B field of the DL MU PPDU. In addition, the MCS level of the UL MU frame may be applied to the MCS level applied to the ACK frame.

Meanwhile, the embodiment described in FIGS. 37 and 38 may be applied to 38 the allocation method of the UL MU resource in the same way, and the overlapped description will be omitted.

The present embodiment has an effect that the resource is saved. However, the UL MU transmission method is more complex that the transmission method described above, and a problem is existed that the MCS level proper to a robust transmission (or lower MCS level) may not be applied to the piggybacked ACK frame (since the MCS level which is the same as the UL MU frame may be applied in the same data field).

FIG. 43 is a flowchart illustrating a DL MU transmission method performed by an AP according to an embodiment of the present invention. The embodiments described above may be identically applied to the description in relation to the flowchart. Accordingly, the overlapped description will be omitted below.

Referring to FIG. 43, an AP may transmit a DL MU PPDU (step, S4310). More particularly, the AP may perform the DL MU transmission of the DL MU PPDU that includes a physical preamble and a data field. In this case, the DL MU PPDU may be a field that includes the trigger frame and the DL MU frame that includes the trigger information for triggering the UL MU transmission.

Next, the AP may perform the UL MU reception of the UL MU PPDU which is generated based on the DL MU PPDU (step, S4320). In this case, the UL MU PPDU may include the ACK frame which is in response to the UL MU frame and the DL MU frame based on the trigger frame.

FIG. 44 is a block diagram of each STA device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 44, an STA device 4410 may include a memory 4412, a processor 4411 and an RF unit 4413. And, as described above, the STA device may be an AP or a non-AP STA as an HE STA device.

The RF unit 4413 may transmit/receive a radio signal with being connected to the processor 4411. The RF unit 4413 may transmit a signal by up-converting the data received from the processor 4411 to the transmission/reception band.

The processor 4411 may implement the physical layer and/or the MAC layer according to the IEEE 802.11 system with being connected to the RF unit 4013. The processor 4411 may be constructed to perform the operation according to the various embodiments of the present invention according to the drawings and description. In addition, the module for implementing the operation of the STA 4410 according to the various embodiments of the present invention described above may be stored in the memory 4412 and executed by the processor 4411.

The memory 4412 is connected to the processor 4411, and stores various types of information for executing the processor 4411. The memory 4412 may be included interior of the processor 4411 or installed exterior of the processor 4411, and may be connected with the processor 4411 by a well known means.

In addition, the STA device 4410 may include a single antenna or a multiple antenna.

The detailed construction of the STA device 4410 of FIG. 44 may be implemented such that the description of the various embodiments of the present invention is independently applied or two or more embodiments are simultaneously applied.

The embodiments described above are constructed by combining elements and features of the present invention in a predetermined form. The elements or features may be considered optional unless explicitly mentioned otherwise. Each of the elements or features can be implemented without being combined with other elements. In addition, some elements and/or features may be combined to configure an embodiment of the present invention. The sequential order of the operations discussed in the embodiments of the present invention may be changed. Some elements or features of one embodiment may also be included in another embodiment, or may be replaced by corresponding elements or features of another embodiment. Also, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that claims that are not explicitly cited in the appended claims may be presented in combination as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention or included as a new claim by subsequent amendment after the application is filed.

The embodiments of the present invention may be implemented through various means, for example, hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. When implemented as hardware, one embodiment of the present invention may be carried out as one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), one or more programmable logic devices (PLDs), one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), a processor, a controller, a microcontroller, a microprocessor, etc.

When implemented as firmware or software, one embodiment of the present invention may be carried out as a module, a procedure, or a function that performs the functions or operations described above. Software code may be stored in the memory and executed by the processor. The memory is located inside or outside the processor and may transmit and receive data to and from the processor via various known means.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be carried out in other specific ways than those set forth herein without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the present invention. The above exemplary embodiments are therefore to be construed in all aspects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, not by the above description, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.

While a frame transmission scheme in a wireless communication system according to the present invention has been described with respect to its application to an IEEE 802.11 system, it also may be applied to other various wireless communication systems than the IEE 802.11 system. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A Station (STA) in a wireless communication system, the STA comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a wireless signal; and a processor configured to control the transceiver, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive, from An access point (AP), a downlink (DL) multi-user (MU) Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), wherein the DL MU PPDU includes a DL data and trigger frame for an uplink (UL) orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) transmission; and transmit, to the AP, an UL MU PPDU generated based on the DL MU PPDU, wherein the trigger frame is transmitted in a first frequency region of the DL MU PPDU, and the DL data is transmitted in a second frequency region of the DL MU PPDU, based on the trigger frame being for multiple stations (STAs), wherein the first frequency region and the second frequency region are different frequency region, wherein the trigger frame and the DL data are transmitted in a same frequency region of the DL MU PPDU for the single STA, and an acknowledge (ACK) frame in response to the DL data and an UL MU frame in response to the trigger frame are transmitted in a same frequency region in the UL MU PPDU, based on the trigger frame being for a single STA, and wherein a High Efficiency-Signal (HE-SIG) B field in the DL MU PPDU includes Broadcast Association Identifier (AID) information for the trigger frame, when the trigger frame is for the multiple STAs.
 2. The STA of claim 1, wherein the trigger frame includes at least one of AID information of an STA that performs the UL OFDMA transmission, space resource indication information for the UL OFDMA transmission or frequency resource allocation information for the UL OFDMA transmission.
 3. A method for performing an uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) transmission by a station (STA) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving, from An access point (AP), a downlink (DL) multi-user (MU) Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), wherein the DL MU PPDU includes a DL data and trigger frame for an uplink (UL) orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) transmission; and transmitting, to the AP, an UL MU PPDU generated based on the DL MU PPDU, wherein the trigger frame is transmitted in a first frequency region of the DL MU PPDU, and the DL data is transmitted in a second frequency region of the DL MU PPDU, based on the trigger frame being for multiple stations (STAs), wherein the first frequency region and the second frequency region are different frequency region, and wherein the trigger frame and the DL data are transmitted in a same frequency region of the DL MU PPDU for the single STA, and an acknowledge (ACK) frame in response to the DL data and an UL MU frame in response to the trigger frame are transmitted in a same frequency region in the UL MU PPDU, based on the trigger frame being for a single STA, and wherein a High Efficiency-Signal (HE-SIG) B field in the DL MU PPDU includes Broadcast Association Identifier (AID) information for the trigger frame, when the trigger frame is for the multiple STAs.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger frame includes at least one of AID information of an STA that performs the UL OFDMA transmission, space resource indication information for the UL OFDMA transmission or frequency resource allocation information for the UL OFDMA transmission. 